The Month Off Job
by future cop
Summary: Frusturated with Nate giving them job after job with no time to rest and heal Eliot storms out. Parker follows and a deeper relatinship is born.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: To be entirely honest I have no idea where this is going I just sat down starting typing and came to with three chapters. This is just to see if it's any good... Enjoy I guess... Oh and if I owened them Eliot and Parker would have been gettin' it on from day one ;)

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><p>She was silent on her approach as usual, and as usual he was fully aware of her presence despite the tangled emotions clouding his mind. As was their way she simply sat down beside him without a word, he saw her stuff some brightly colored pieces of paper into the back pocket of her black jeans and rolled his eyes. She almost beat her record by being still for four whole minutes before she began tapping her fingers against her knee. This led to cracking the knuckles of her other hand, she knew he hated it and was still under the impression that if he couldn't see it he couldn't hear it either. "Parker stop it." He reached over her body and took her hand sliding his fingers under hers to stop the crack.<p>

"Are you mad?" she asked taking his acknowledgement of her presence as tacit approval for her to talk to him. He knew it from the day they met the simple fact that nobody else seemed to grasp; the pair of them were too alike she knew he needed to talk but that he didn't know how to ask for it.

"I'm worried Parker." He told her squeezing her hand gently. "I'm worried that he's going to screw up and get us all killed."

"Well that won't happen." She swung around still holding his hand so she was leaning back against the ledge of the building slouching down in her typical relaxed stance. A stance he knew she could pull out of and be in motion from in seconds. "You won't let anything happen to us and I won't let anything happen to you."

"It's that simple for you huh Parker." He replied his anger rising at her matter of fact tone. Did she think that what he did was easy, that being responsible for the four of them was something without its own unique set of headaches; most caused by the thief herself. He pulled his hand from hers and stood pacing back and forth in front of her punching the heavy bag he had placed on the roof on each pass.

"Yep." She replied unmoving other than her fingers playing out a piece of music across her legs. She had confided in him before he performed a year ago that she had also been a musician. Her middle school teacher had found her to be a piano prodigy; she had even played for him once in his loft. He was more of a guitar player but watching as her whole body responded to the notes while she played. Seeing her face light up as she completed a complicated key change and her silent smile of satisfaction as she held the final note knowing she had it perfect, it had been the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

"How is that possible?" he asked leaning his weight against the bar supporting his bag. Without Nate or Hardison's ok he had set up an entire home gym on the roof of the building. After a week of using it when the team didn't need him but he wanted to stay close he found different things had been added. A balance beam beside his speed bag, yoga mats and balls beside the treadmill, jump ropes in all colors and shapes draped over his free weights, and a set of practice rings and chalk to the far side of the roof. Another week after that and he would find her performing a complicated dismount off the rings or bar as he came upstairs for his own workout. Another week after that and they were silent partners, they would show up and stretch together, even going as far as to assist each other in some stretching maneuvers in an attempt to improve flexibility, Parker would then start with her jump ropes and yoga while he completed push-up's and sit-up's. Depending on the day they would then go to one of their stations, most commonly Eliot would wait for her choice before deciding.

If Parker chose her balance beam he would stay on the bags so if she fell, which she had yet to do, he would be there to catch her. If she chose the rings he would move toward her with free weights, and work out close enough to be of assistance. He had yet to figure out how she managed to get to the roof whenever he did. It was never a set time for him; he had searched for sensors and other possible trip wires but nothing. She just knew.

"I want to run." She told him interrupting his trip down memory lane. She stood and stretched lightly before trooping back down to Nate's apartment. He followed slower not quite sure what her plan was, he figured it out quick when she led him into one of the empty rooms at Nate's where they stored their gym bags and showered. She tossed him his bag and retreated into the other bedroom to change, one of his conditions upon starting their workouts. Eliot sighed but did as requested knowing running with her was easier than worrying about her while she was gone; or at least less trying on his already fragile control.

As per usual when they ran he was finished changing first, so he took their water bottles out of the loose floorboard she stored them in and filled them with water looping his own around his chest and setting hers on the counter as he began his own personal stretches. It was only a moment later that she joined him and they began stretching together. Their routine was so well honed they did not even need to speak to complete it; he couldn't help the smile on his face as he realized that was why it was her suggestion. She knew what helped clear his mind was running and even though she detested it she would always go with him on his typical five mile jog when he was upset.

Once finished stretching they trooped down the stairs into the bar Parker's spandex pants garnering a few looks of interest that were quickly dissuaded by Eliot's angry glare. Once they were on the street he placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her, she turned to look at him a question in her eyes but he simply smiled. "Thanks Parker." He told her and then he took off ignoring her shouting that he was a cheater and instead listening to the pounding of their feet hers just a bit slower than his but she was still able to catch up to him quickly bumping his shoulder in retaliation.

As they made their way down the street he allowed the sounds of their feet, now in perfect synch, and their breathing to relax him and allow his mind to wander. He had been prepared for Nate to go to the crapper from the moment he took the drink from a loan shark while Sophie was gone. He knew that Sophie was aware of the problem but seemed to believe that Nate would pull through fine. Hardison however, who even had a clue what Hardison thought or was aware of, sometimes it seemed as if his whole world was wrapped up in his TV shows and computers. His eyes drifted to the right as he watched his running partner's steady progress, Parker it seemed was just waiting for Nate to fail her. It was the same attitude she had about each one of them. Sophie had failed by leaving them no matter how welcome the timing of her return was. Hardison had done it by not finding her when the team split up for the first time. Eliot had spent a day, just to see if he could, and found her in Rio at an art exhibit. He had stayed a week and been her backup on heist night both commiserating about the empty feeling the trunk full of stolen artwork gave them compared to the feeling of a happy family they had fixed.

Even Nate had failed her by tricking them when he went to prison; Parker's digs about the drinking were because Nate was the only one who had not spoken to her about his failure. Eliot had walked in on the discussion between her and Sophie where the grifter explained what had happened to cause her to leave in a way that made Parker understand. On the opposite side everyone on comm's had heard Hardison's explanation for his being unable to find her and Parker's speech about locks in return.

"Hey, hold on I got a cramp." Parker told him making her way to a bench in the park they had just entered. He stepped forward taking the jacket she tossed to him leaving her in a tank top and her running pants as she propped a leg on the back of the bench nearly bending her body in half to stretch out her hamstrings.

"Here." He slung the jacket over the bench and reached down pointing her toes and massaging her calf to help her past the cramp. "Thought we stretched out enough." He told her gruffly, his own form of an apology.

"Not you." She said taking a sip of water, "It's an old injury from a few years back."

"What happened?" he asked easing her onto the bench upon realizing that she was likely not going to finish the run. She gestured for him to join her at the bench and put her leg over his pulling up the edge of her pants to reveal an ugly star shaped scar in her leg.

"We were trying to get out of this house and I was last out the window because I was fastest. He grabbed my leg and, you know those spiky hammers you use to beat up meat." At Eliot's nod she was quick to continue reciting her story the only way she knew how, perfectly blank no emotion whatsoever. "He hit me with it three times, shattered my bone."

"How old were you?" Eliot asked already knowing the answer would bring on that mix of anger and terror that came with each one of Parker's more horrific past memories.

"Seven I think, it was my first foster home." She reached down and removed his hand which had been unconsciously stroking the skin. "Anyway they had to do a bunch of surgeries and I got to stay at the hospital while they investigated and everything. But they had a bone shard get stuck in my muscles so they had to get it out and they said it might hurt sometimes."

"Hold on how is it that you do what you do then?" he asked still massaging her calf as they sat on the bench.

"I don't usually run seven miles Sparky." She told him with a smile.

"Seven miles?" he looked down at his watch and with a few quick calculations determined they had indeed been running for seven miles and change. He looked up realizing he officially had no clue where they were. The area was nice, residential with several middle class homes spread out around the small park where children were playing on the jungle gym in front of them.

"You weren't paying a lot of attention so I took us toward my place." She told him standing carefully testing her weight on her injured leg.

"This is nowhere near the warehouse district." Eliot told her rolling his eyes.

"I know, Sophie told me that since I had to pick a new place to live anyway she was going to pick it and decorate it for me." Parker informed him as they set off on a light walk, Eliot keeping a hand on the small of Parker's back in case she fell.

"Sounds like Sophie, she's been dying to dig her paws into my place for ages." Eliot agreed as they moved down a smaller side street stopping in front of a yellow house with a large chain link fence. The front yard was small, a signature of most Boston homes, the porch was painted white and the rope and various harnesses hanging over the railings were proof enough that Parker lived there.

"Do you really think that's a good idea?" he asked gesturing to the glaring proof of what some of her extra-curricular activities were.

"Sophie told me to tell the neighbors that I'm a rock climber that way I don't have to hide anything." Parker replied leading him into her home. The front door opened into a large open room, he kicked off his running shoes beside the ones Parker had just removed and watched her vault over the back of a large leather couch with a contented sigh. The room was clearly designed by Sophie with the dark green walls that matched perfectly with the fireplace in the corner which was the focus point of a couch and two love seats. Above the fireplace was a TV and DVD cases on either side. To the other side of the room were two matching armchairs with a large oak bookshelf between them.

Though the room was clearly designed by Sophie it was completely Parker, from the two million dollar vase sitting perilously close to Parker's swinging feet to the large ruby holding down a stack of floor plans on the counter. Eliot heard the television turn on and took it as permission to continue his exploring. He moved over to a breakfast bar with three stools placed in front of it. He was almost jealous of the kitchen Sophie had put together, an industrial fridge and stove, a pantry, and a deep freeze in the corner. He opened the fridge and rolled his eyes, it was filled with pizza boxes, left over Chinese food, and two cartons of milk one that appeared to be filled with lumps.

He opened the stove and couldn't help his chuckle as he pulled out various rolled up art pieces from several museums around Boston. "If you wanted to cook you could take them out." Parker told him from her seat at one of the bar stools at the breakfast bar.

"You should learn to cook, cereal and take-out is not an acceptable option." He told her nodding to the cupboard he had just opened that was filled with different types of cereal.

"Fix it then." She told him bouncing slightly in her seat.

"Let me borrow your shower and we can go food shopping, we'll start with a few easy things then." He spoke before he realized what he was saying. When Parker bounced off up a set of stairs pushing open the door to a guest bathroom as she went Eliot came to the realization that he wanted to be with her. She would keep him calm in the way only she knew how and would help him through his frustration at their 'fearless leader'.


	2. Chapter 2

Eliot took his time under the hot water of Parker's downstairs shower. He couldn't imagine before that day Parker living in a nice house but she did. He supposed Sophie's shock at Parker's old place had motivated it but he didn't really care why she did it; just that Parker was finally taken care of. Though he worried about her since they had seen the warehouse he never thought to do what Sophie did, giving her a place that was better and helping her make it a home.

He supposed that was the problem, everyone including him got so wrapped up in their own issues that the problems of others seemed minute in comparison. Parker's plight had occupied his mind for a day or two but then the next job, or Nate pissed him off again and he forgot before he figured out what to do about it. The most recent argument between them had been over his position on jobs; they had been taking far too many one after another. It was like Nate's desire to atone for his sins imagined or not had reached a fever pitch and running them into the ground was his way of dealing. They had completed three jobs in a row without more than a day off between them and Nate after the debrief from the last one had gone into a new mission briefing barely a pause in-between words.

Seeing the faces of the rest of the team and feeling the fatigue in his own muscles Eliot had flat out refused to participate and made his way up to the roof where Parker found him a few moments later. Eliot finished showering and took a towel from the rack wrapping it around his waist using the other to dry his hair. Once he emerged from underneath the towel he found a set of his clothes sitting on the sink. He allowed a moment of frustration that he had not heard her come in but as soon as it entered it passed. Had she been less good at her job they would have likely been caught or killed years before he could not fault her for a skill that kept her alive. He pulled on his clothes with a slight wince realizing the run had hit his already sore muscles while he was in the shower.

He found Parker pulling paintings from the stove and sticking them in the sink one at a time muttering to herself as she worked. "Can you help me carry them to the basement?" she asked pulling the last one from the stove and grouping it with what he could see on closer inspection were piles, he assumed by painter.

"Sure." He held out his arms and she began piling paintings into them only taking three herself as she led him deeper into her home. She came to a wall under the stairs and slid up a small panel in the wood he never would have noticed had he not witnessed her opening it. She punched a code into the keypad and a door opened to his left with swoosh almost hitting him in the arm. He hopped to the right with a scowl in her direction which she ignored flipping the light switch on the wall and leading him down a set of stairs. When they reached the bottom he almost couldn't hold back the gasp of shock at the sight of the room. He imagined everything she had stored beyond the reach of the lights in her warehouse had been moved here. The room spanned the length of her home with three rows of what appeared to be safe deposit boxes with no keys or labels of any kind. She moved down the third row and stopped halfway down opening one of the boxes which had a few other canvases inside. The three in her arms and one from his stack went there and he continued to follow her around obediently as she slowly lightened the load in his arms.

What surprised him the most about her secret storage area was not that she had one, nor the sheer volume of things inside; it was the organization of the area. It was clear by the path she led him on that though her system may not make sense to anyone else it was perfectly organized in her own way.

"Thanks" she told him once she had closed the last door to the last painting. "That would have taken forever by myself." She told him as they headed back upstairs Parker punching in another code to release them from the room.

"I'll consider cooking me a good dinner thanks enough." He replied following her into another side door that led to a garage. She tossed him the keys to her black Camaro the one he had gone with her to purchase. She had confessed that she knew almost everything there was to know about stealing a car or how an engine worked but how to buy one was something she did not grasp as well. The subject only came up after the third vehicle was reported stolen from near their offices and found in the warehouse district on nights Parker had been too tired to walk home. The team had made it clear that she had to either purchase her own vehicle or take a cab on such days any thefts in the area put the team at risk.

Eliot pulled out of the garage allowing a grin of appreciation at the feel of the motor and the car's responsiveness. While he loved his truck the vehicle acted up more often than not and he had recently been considering purchasing a second vehicle and keeping the truck for recreational use only. He quickly found himself in an area he recognized and pulled in at a supermarket happy to find it was so close to Parker's home.

They made their way in perfectly in sync as usual and Eliot told her what each ingredient was for and stocking her plates, pots, pans, and silverware upon finding she used paper products. He got enough to make three or four full meals and extra things to assist her in the time he might not be there. There was a slight disagreement as Parker was all set to leave the store paying for nothing. Eliot refused and made his way to the check stand with her bicep gripped tight enough that she was unable to slip from his grasp but not hard enough to do any kind of damage. He quickly paid for the groceries and she spent the drive home doing the math aloud on how much money he might have 'wasted' over the years purchasing groceries instead of simply taking them when he had the skills to do so.

She kept up this tirade until he began seasoning the chicken then quieted down with a lollypop he had not realized she pocketed from the candy isle. He explained what he was doing and handed her a piece herself to coat with seasoning he had made while she was putting the groceries away. They fell into a comfortable silence as they finished dinner their ability to communicate with minimal conversation on jobs translating easily into a more domestic setting. In no time dinner was finished and Eliot had set the table with the new dishes they had purchased.

"What if I don't like it?" she asked as they set the food filled plates down on the counter.

"You think you won't like it?" he asked, "Doesn't it smell good." He lifted a plate to her nose jerking it up just enough to smear her face with potatoes. She stared at him indignantly as he tried his best to hold back a laugh at crossed eyes glaring at the bit of potato she could see on the tip of her nose. It was one of a series of reminders that day of how skilled she was as he did not even see her hand flash up to toss her own handful of potatoes in his hair.

It was his turn to stare in shock as she laughed out loud the smile lighting up her face something he had never seen before. Unlike when he watched her steal something this smile was not tinged with the knowledge of what they were doing on a job, or what risks they were taking it was pure happiness. He was up in a flash on a run to the sink where they had left the pots and pans to dry, he grabbed the kitchen sprayer and turned just in time to grip her around the waist pull her up against him dousing them both with water. She laughed and turned fighting her way out of his grasp and disappearing into the house. He instantly followed fully aware that if he lost her he would lose the battle; the thief was at her best when unseen. He followed her down the hall that led to the bathroom he had showered in but she darted off in another direction. He found a set of stairs that he followed her up but once he reached the top all he found was a hallway with four doors and no sign of Parker.

Cursing quietly he opened the first door and found a bedroom, a light sheen of dust told him that Parker being hidden here was unlikely but he did a cursory search of the room anyway keeping his ears open just in case he was missing something. Satisfied he closed the door and moved across the hall to the next door again propping it open to listen for noises of Parker sneaking past him. This room was a bathroom and the glass door to the shower exposed anywhere she could have been hiding so he moved on quickly. The next door led to a set of stairs that led to an attic, he kept the door open but moved on wanting to finish the floor he was on before moving on to the next.

After a quick search of the other guest bedroom, this one just as dusty led him again to the stairs. He moved up slowly surprised to find Parker's bedroom was the attic. It was hardwood floors and completely open with two skylights and a balcony that overlooked her backyard pool. The white bed he remembered from her warehouse took up the majority of the room. He moved to the closet and found harnesses, as well as what appeared to be every dress Sophie had bought Parker most with the tags still on.

He chuckled lightly and closed the door moving to the other bathroom. He took a moment longer in there noting cosmetics most of which like the dresses were still labeled. He stepped out of the room and nearly had a heart attack when Parker flipped down in front of him hanging from a beam by her legs. "Boo!" she shouted giggling as he stepped back clearly startled. She grabbed another beam and used it to land gracefully in front of him. "That took forever!" she told him once she had righted herself.

"You're a sneaky one I had to make sure you weren't anywhere else." He replied choosing not to mention the fact that she had frightened him in the hope that she would not remember.

"I'm hungry now." She shared; Eliot turned and nearly toppled over as Parker hopped on his back. "Piggyback ride scaredy-cat!"


	3. Chapter 3

He knew that most people thought he woke in bolt of movement but on lazy mornings he preferred the slow wake up. Had there been someone in the bed with him he would have pulled her closer, snuggled his nose into her hair and drifted off again. As he was alone he substituted a pillow and buried his face into the soft material of the sheets in Parker's guest room. After dinner they had settled in for a movie and upon its ending he had stood to leave but Parker simply rolled her eyes took his hand and led him to the guest room. She had left the room without a word but her glare and the fact that she had taken the car keys made it obvious she expected to find him there in the morning. He heaved a sigh and looked over at the clock on the wall noting that it was ten in the morning a much later then he usually managed to sleep but between the fight with Nate and the run they had taken he was unsurprised.

As he got up he didn't bother trying to find Parker, she was rarely awake before noon mainly because she was rarely asleep before the sun rose. Her job required odd hours and even though they worked during the day now she stayed on her thief schedule, often to the point of not sleeping for days when they were on a job. He stretched out and slowly pulled back the covers on the bed, he pulled on the clothes he had worn yesterday grimacing a bit at the thought. On a con he didn't mind wearing the same clothes and when there was no other choice there was no other choice, but when he was on a break he was secure enough to admit he liked nice clean clothes.

He went downstairs slowly knowing that his host was a soft sleeper and unwilling to wake her before she was ready. Once on the first floor of the house he felt more comfortable and walked a bit easier, the staircase led him into the living room which he gave a cursory once-over to make sure nothing had been moved or taken. It was a habit he learned one afternoon when the only clue to a bomb planted in his kitchen had been the flour canister moved a half-inch to the right. Since that day when he had barely escaped alive he had begun taking mental pictures of rooms before he left them, anything not just how it was left got checked.

After he was satisfied as to the state of the room he decided to take the opportunity Parker's absence gave him to look around her house. He had already seen the second and third floors thanks to their game of hide-and-seek earlier but the rest of the first floor was still a mystery. He took the hallway that led past where he had showered the day before. The first door he opened led to a coat closet that seemed to be overflow from the closet in her room if the bright colors were any indication. Uninterested he continued down the hall. He found a laundry room and a broom closet before he got to an archway at the back of the hall. A step down led him into a large room painted a deep red color that was barely visible due to the bookshelves lining every wall from floor to ceiling.

He gasped lightly at the sheer amount of books, they were not all hardcovers or there for show like most in the homes they entered on a regular basis. The look of the spines and the sagging shelves made it clear that Parker had read every novel in the room some more than once. A closer look made it obvious that Sophie had nothing to do with this room other than the color of the walls and the large comfy looking leather sofas centered around a beat up coffee table. The shelves were mismatched and most were not in good condition sagging in the middle under the weight of the books. In the corner of the room was a pile of plywood on top of a baby grand piano that was in what appeared to be worse condition than anything else in the room. Eliot stepped over to it and noted the shelves on either side were new and clearly made by Parker from scratch.

He reached out but before he could test the strength and durability of what were clearly poorly made shelves his phone beeped indicating an incoming text message. Eliot was not surprised to be receiving a message he was surprised instead that he had gone so long without one. He checked his phone and found it was from Hardison _Nate's one hour._ He sighed, put his phone away, and made his way out of Parker's makeshift library into the kitchen. It took him only a few moments to get together the ingredients for pancakes and he had already started blending the ingredients when Parker bounded down the stairs.

She had clearly made an extra effort to make noise which he appreciated as she entered the room pulling her long blonde hair back into a ponytail. "Did you get it?" she asked as she pulled a coffee maker out of a cabinet by the fridge that he hadn't noticed.

"Yeah. I was actually thinking I was surprised I didn't get a bunch of texts and phone calls before now." He answered pouring batter into a skillet as Parker prepared coffee trying her best to hide a yawn, "What time did you go to bed?" he asked noting that it was only ten thirty.

"Six-ish." She answered slumped against the counter.

"I know it's not the nice thing to say since we're supposed to be the good guys and everything but I really hope this isn't about a job." Eliot told her as she hopped up on the counter cup of coffee in one hand and another placed next to him.

"Would you quit?" she asked leaning over to watch him flip the pancakes and muttering something about them being brown not black.

"Quit working with Nate?" he shrugged his shoulders noncommittally hoping that would get him out of answering the question. She simply continued to watch him in that unnervingly observant way of hers. He knew they all thought she was socially inept and in some ways she most definitely was but Parker noticed things. To Eliot it seemed like she saw the average person as a doll, a plaything for her amusement but when it came to the people she cared about like the team and Alice Whites friend… when it came to people she liked Parker noticed. "No… I don't think I would, kind of seems like it would be just as bad to go back as it was last time remember."

"I meant still helping people but maybe not when it got you so mad." She said as they moved to the counter.

"You're worried about me." He observed while she turned slightly red at being so obvious.

"I'm worried about everybody." She answered keeping her head down and her focus on her plate. "If you and I are tired the rest of them must be like super tired."

"I'm worried too." Eliot told her. He didn't reach for her hand, he didn't try to hug her he simply nudged his chair a bit closer. It wasn't close enough to touch but instead close enough that she could borrow some strength and resolve from him. They weren't touchy feely people he had been years ago and he wasn't sure she ever got a hug from someone who honestly cared but today wasn't the day to find out.

They finished eating in silence and while she cleared the table he couldn't help but notice a very slight glitch in her movement. It would have been invisible to anybody else but suddenly her allowing him to drive and being more stationary then usual the night before made sense. He felt a wave of guilt wash over him as he realized her leg was still hurting her from their run the night before. He said nothing, it wasn't how they interacted, and he trusted her enough to tell him if it became a serious problem but still he made a mental note to look into her type of injury. Perhaps there had been some medical accomplishment that she didn't know about or simply hadn't been able to afford at the time to solve her problem.

"Ready?" she asked un-necessarily as he had already stood pulling his jacket over his broad shoulders.

"Can I drive?" he didn't mention the leg didn't even let his eyes drift down but he did see the slight sag of her body that indicated relief.

"If you _have_ to." She tossed him the keys and followed him out of the house punching in her security code as they went. "Can I ask a question?" she inquired once they were inside the car and on the move.

"If I said no would it stop you?" he shot back allowing a small smile to grace his features so she would know he was joking.

"How come you've seen both of my places but I don't know where you live?" she asked ignoring his joke and staring out the window to avoid looking at him.

"To be honest mine kind of sucks, but if you want to see it we can go once were done at Nate's." Eliot told her, he had been planning on stopping at his place anyway he wanted to pick up some tools to try and make her shelves that wouldn't collapse if she pulled the wrong book.

"Don't you mean when we get back from whatever job he's sending us on?" Parker asked her fear of him leaving the team returning though she hid it well.

"No Parker." They had arrived in the underground lot beside Nate's building and he turned off the car twisting in the seat to face her. "I'm not doing another job right now; the fact that we can't even have twenty four hours to ourselves isn't healthy. Not for you, me, or anyone else. I have enough trouble trusting those three when were on the job let alone when everyone is too tired to function properly."

"I thought you did trust them." She said after a moment of reflection on his words.

"Most days." He replied getting out of the car he tossed the keys back to her and with a hand on the small of her back guided her down into the bar. She moved toward the stairs but with a gentle nudge from Eliot he had her at the elevator waiting for the car to descend.

"Good morning all." Sophie announced her presence from behind them. Eliot turned and nodded a greeting and Parker chirped a hello. The silence between them was as much comfortable as it was necessary, none in the room had the energy for a long drawn out conversation about the weather. The only other thing to talk about was Eliot's outburst from yesterday and his and Parker's subsequent departure from the apartment and he knew Sophie would not want to bring that up fully aware it would be discussed upstairs.

"Finally." Parker huffed so only he could hear when the elevator doors finally opened. Eliot held back a chuckle placing an arm across the doors and allowing both women to brush past him into the confined space. The ride up to the fourth floor was short and also silent though Parker kept up a litany of eye-rolls and funny faces to keep his mind off his claustrophobia. Adrenaline helped him keep the feelings in most days but he had been forced to reveal his fear to Parker when a plan she had drafted involved both of them crawling through an air duct. Neither had mentioned it since but he had been comforted by her small attempts to distract him any time they were in an enclosed space together.

Nobody bothered to knock simply entering Nate's apartment to find both him and Hardison standing before the wall of death as he had taken to calling it in his mind. Nate's eyes were immediately on him, Sophie took her usual spot but Parker seated herself beside him on the arm of the couch, her warmth a source of strength for a confrontation the he was sure would hurt what he had come to view as a very good friend.

"There is no need for rehashing of what happened here yesterday." Nate began looking away from Eliot to survey the rest of the team. "As I began the Johnson family-"

"No." Eliot cut Nate off with the quiet word. It was not shouted or demanded but rather stated as fact.

"Eliot." Nate began but stopped when the hitter took a step forward.

"If you conduct this job you should be fully aware that it will be without me. Look at your team Nate they are exhausted. Every one of us has beaten ourselves into the ground for you and come through every time you've needed us. Now we need something from you." Eliot reached down and placed a hand on Parker's shoulder. "I'm going home." He said. Though the comment was thrown out into the room it was clear that it was only directed at Parker. She rose without a word and as one they left the apartment, they had barely made it into the hall when they heard Sophie start in on Nate.

A few seconds later Hardison scurried out with his keyboard under his arm and darted into the elevator doors that had just opened. "Month off." He said clearly still frightened by whatever Sophie had said or done to Nate. "If something that needs immediate attention springs up he'll call… later!" Hardison ran off as soon as the doors were open clearly wanting to get as far away as possible before Nate changed his mind.

"So" Eliot said rocking back and forth from heel to toe. "Still wanna see my place?"

"You drive." Parker handed him the keys and they walked out of the bar into the sunlight of an entire month off.


	4. Chapter 4

He could sense her disapproval as soon as they pulled into the parking lot of the apartment building he lived at. It was not a large building maybe twenty units total but it was also not the nicest place in the world. "Why do you live here?" she asked as they exited the car which earned a few glances of interest from a group of younger boys loitering by the empty pool. A glare from Eliot had them scattering quickly as he came around the car and led Parker to the stairs.

"Didn't know how long we were going to stay in Boston. Then once we started I spent so little time here it didn't matter." He told her with a shrug. They reached the third floor silently and he unlocked the door opening it for her. While the inside of the apartment was better it still was not great though privately he felt that the warehouse left her no room to judge. He watched her look around and copied taking in the room from newcomers eyes. The couch was worn it was obvious that he spent most nights sleeping there something the wrinkled blanket and pillow made clear. He had scattered a few personal mementos throughout the room, the sword Nate and Sophie had given him for Christmas had been hung by the window and a picture of a young Eliot and his mother was on the side table but other than that it was all second hand or beat up furniture.

"Do you like it here?" she asked wrinkling her nose slightly as the baby next door began to cry. "Where's your garden?"

"Out here." He led her to the window which led to a fire escape; she crawled out before him and went up the ladder. The roof was mostly empty save a small tarp set up in the far corner. "I pay the building manager a little extra to turn a blind eye, his wife likes the fresh tomatoes too." Eliot told her opening one of the flaps to allow her entrance. It was not a large garden just a line of three troughs filled with dirt and plants at various stages of growth. There was a hose set up in the back which he turned on starting up his home-made irrigation system.

"Do you talk to them, Sophie says you're supposed to talk to flowers to make them grow better but the one's Tara got me before she left died anyway. Maybe I wasn't saying the right thing." Parker thought aloud leaning over to inspect his small green bean crop clearly intrigued by the little sprouts.

"Those are for plants that are still alive, once you pull them out of the ground most are dead." Eliot told her he had a faint memory of Tara looking just a bit scared of the small blonde thief as she handed her a bouquet of daffodils before she left her temporary post with the team.

"Yours aren't in the ground." She argued pointing accusingly at the plants which despite a day of not being watered seemed to be doing just fine.

"They have dirt here Parker." He picked up a clump and tossed it at her to demonstrate chuckling as she glared at the dirt spot on her shirt.

"But what if they die too then you can't eat." She told him either choosing to ignore the dirt or already plotting revenge.

"I can still use a grocery store, remember that place we went last night." He joked smirking as she scowled in return.

"You're making fun of me!" she told him crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at him defiantly. He couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out of his chest, she reminded him in that moment of his niece at three years old demanding to be allowed to stay up with her Uncle Elly.

"I'm sorry sweetheart I'm just in a good mood." He stood from his crouched position and took her by the arm leading her out of the tent into the sunlight. "A whole month to just rest, I haven't had that since I was eighteen. Even when the team was on breaks I was always going."

"Why didn't you rest?" she asked moving forward to sit on the ledge her body swaying with the wind as she leaned over.

"Back then there was more bad stuff then good, I didn't have anything nice to think about and after a while all you can do is think. I didn't want the bad stuff to overwhelm me." He told her sitting on the roof with his back up against her ledge her calf a comforting warmth against his side.

"All you do is sit around and think, that's really boring." She told him clearly only half focused as she looked off at a point in the distance.

"Well I have other things to do this time." He nudged her gently brining her focus back to him. "I want to build you new bookshelves in that library of yours, plus I promised to teach you to cook."

"And you need a different place to live; I don't want all your food to die." She answered. "What's wrong with my bookshelves?"

"Let's just say I don't think carpentry is a talent of yours." He chuckled and when he didn't hear a response for a few moments he looked up and found her deeply absorbed in thought yet again.

"What's going on Parker?" he asked hefting his weight up to the ledge forcing her to focus on him.

"Archie wants me to come to dinner and meet his family." She said after a moment. The second the words left her mouth she dropped her eyes down to her hands as she twisted her fingers around each other clearly expecting to be chastised. "I've been putting him off because we are so busy but I think Nate told him about the vacation because he wants me there on Friday."

Eliot paused a moment to collect his thoughts. Archie's comments about Parker not fitting in anywhere when they first met had rubbed him the wrong way though clearly the older man had opened his viewpoint since. Eliot couldn't help but feel a bit cautious about the whole thing, Archie wasn't entirely wrong Parker was a loose cannon at times and was difficult to corral once excited; for someone who wasn't used to her particular brand of crazy she could seem like a lot. "Do you want to go?"

"He told his daughter… his real daughter that I was his daughter too and now I don't know what he wants." She said honestly. Eliot felt his heart break; this girl had never had anyone care about her for anything other than what she brought to the table. Had she not been as naturally gifted he had no doubt Archie would have passed her by that day on the street; he could just see Parker looking twenty years older standing on a street corner waiting for a nameless man to pull up. He imagined that would have been her life had thieving not been an option in some ways it might have been better than the broken young woman with no last name who couldn't imagine a scenario where someone might care about her or want her to be a part of their life.

"He wants to know you Parker. Can't say I blame the man you're quite the person to know even with the odd fascination with tasers." He replied nudging her shoulder pleased to see her finally crack a smile. "If you want I can go with you on Friday, we can make a pie to bring along, my momma always said you never show up to someone's house without something for them in return."

"You should live at my house." She blurted out as though it had been building and just exploded out of her.

"What?" he replied automatically unsure how to process her comments, before he could say another word she began to speak.

"Well I don't like it here, there's nowhere safe for all your money and loot. You know I keep my stuff safe, I have a spare key and a big backyard, plus you saw there are plenty of rooms. We can get a dog too but not one of those ones that talk like that cartoon Hardison watches. The underwear dog is weird I don't want a dog that can fly unless he can take me up with him. Plus you wanted to fix my bookshelves anyway and there's a lot of room and the garage has room for two cars."

"Was that all one breath?" he asked amused by her rant. She chose to stay silent and just looked at him as he mulled the choice in his mind. He knew they worked well together, he had told her as much in the cave, she forced that protector out in him in a different way. He would take a punch; knife, bullet, or anything physical for the team without a second thought but Parker was the only one who he felt responsible for emotionally. Perhaps it was the simple fact that he knew she trusted him, a gift she rarely gave that made him more attuned to her but whatever the case she was his responsibility. She was also not incorrect about his current living arrangements the place was not the best and he couldn't deny that the bed in her guest room had felt more at home than the creaky hotel room bed ever had. "I suppose we could give that a shot, I'm not a fan of the underwear dog either." He replied she let out an excited squeal and before he could prepare himself he had his arms full of an ecstatic Parker. She had leapt forward wrapping her arms and legs around him in an excited hug.

Once he got over the shock he hugged her back a bit tighter then he normally would have he was not a man who received hugs very much though he very much liked the feeling of being wrapped in another person. Almost involuntarily he found himself closing his eyes, breathing in her scent. His body for the first time in years moved without his permission as he began running his hands up and down her slender back the man in him delighting in her small shiver. She pulled back and he reluctantly loosed his hold prepared to apologize for wandering hands but was shocked yet again when he felt her warm lips place a kiss on his cheek. "What?" he asked pulling away far enough to look her in the eye but not letting go completely.

"You said you were supposed to bring something when you visit someone's House. I don't have any pie so that Will have to do." She told him before springing off his lap and happily descending the fire escape muttering something about stuffing his clothes in pillowcases.

"Well." He pressed a hand to his cheek where he could still feel the press of her lips. "Was not expecting to be attracted to her." The wind carried his confession away as he slowly shook the feeling of her lips on his cheek and her body pressed against hers. _This might just suck_ he thought as he followed her down the fire escape.

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><p>AN: I'm glad so many of you like that this is from Eliot's POV the next chapter will focus more on Eliot dealing with the fact that he is attracted to Parker. This doesn't mean he realizes he has feelings just that he's aware of her as a woman rather than his annoying kid sister. Just a heads up but it may be another week before I update, today was the first day of my birthday week (which basically means I'm going to be lazy unless I'm at work all week) culminating in my b-day on Friday so I doubt I'll get much writing done unless inspiration strikes and cannot be ignored! So Happy St. Patty's day in advance to all of you lovely people!


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: So obviously lack of leverage has kept the inspiration pretty slack I think I had two sentences written for this chapter until I got hit with the muse stick and pretty much wrote this whole thing in an hour. I decided that my grammar mistakes were worth me getting mocked if I could end your wait, and as of posting time I'm probably late for work! Hope you enjoy it!

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><p>Though he had gone through the motions of grumbling at Parker for packing his clothes in pillowcases instead of the duffel bags in the closet, and making a grab for his plants to pull them up by the roots Eliot was still reeling. He separated himself from Parker to turn in his key and settle his bill with the manager and couldn't remember getting down the stairs. He had known intellectually that Parker was a gorgeous woman it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out, despite that he had never felt that attraction that hit him out of the blue on the roof. Before that moment he would swear up and down that they had a brother-sister relationship and now he knew that was the farthest thing from the truth. He shook the managers hand passing him a basket of the fully grown vegetables from his garden he picked before loading them into the truck.<p>

A loud bang pulled his attention from the manager to the glass door that gave full view of the parking lot. His eyes immediately followed the source of the noise to a duffel bag sitting on the roof of his truck. Before he could even comprehend what he was seeing another joined it with an equally loud bang. "Parker" he grumbled taking off ignoring the chuckle from the man behind him.

"Hi Eliot!" he looked up and saw Parker half hanging off the balcony waving enthusiastically at him.

"What the hell are you doing?" he shouted back using a hand to shield his eyes from the sun and choosing to ignore the tightening in his chest at the sight of her smiling face aglow with the light of the sunset.

"Packing!" she replied heaving the third bag over the edge of the railing and letting out a whoop as it fell on top of the truck with the others.

"I could have carried them." He told her not even bothering to argue, there was only one left and she already had it propped on the railing. Even if he had chosen to fight with her about it she would have it over the edge before he got out his first word, he knew better than most that with Parker it paid to pick your fights. Despite that decision he still winced as he heard the metallic clang of what he imagined to be one of his belt buckles hitting the roof of his truck and most definitely denting it.

"Would have taken too long, we're roommates!" He rolled his eyes already moving to catch her having anticipated that the next thing she would throw over the railing would be her own body. Unlike the last time he caught her in such a fashion he was prepared and braced enough that her weight barely shook him.

"Your insane." He told her as she squealed delightedly in his arms. He took a moment to breathe her in, he knew from his shower that she didn't use any scented products so he knew the soft whiff of vanilla was only her and the fact that he was the only person close enough to know what she smelled like made him smile.

"We need to go to a hardware store." She informed him jumping down from his arms seemingly without a care in the world.

"Why?" he asked moving the bags from the roof of his truck into the back seat so they wouldn't squish the troughs of plants he loaded into the bed of the truck before they started packing.

"You need man sheets, and man walls." She told him definitively as she placed his guitar on the passenger seat.

"I'll be fine for tonight, we can go in the morning and start fresh. It'll give me a good chance to pick up some wood for those bookshelves too." He muttered the second part to himself forgetting for a moment that Parker's hearing was almost equal to his own.

"What's wrong with my bookshelves." She demanded darting around the truck to the driver's side so they stood toe to toe.

"Ignoring the fact that they don't match, they're mostly made of balsa wood from wall mart and that if you put one more book on them they're likely to collapse… absolutely nothing!" he told her with a fake smile plastered on his face.

"I thought I did ok." She muttered clearly with no response to his accusations.

"It's not that you did a bad job it's just that building stuff isn't exactly your forte." She still looked absolutely devastated and he couldn't stop the familiar feeling that he was a terrible person for hurting her. "I know you had a pretty specific idea of what you wanted, why don't you sketch it tonight while I set up our garden and we can try to turn it into whatever you decide?" he asked scrambling for a way to get the downcast expression off her face.

"Ok!" she exclaimed and danced off to the Camaro leaving Eliot wondering if she had honestly been upset or of Sophie had finally helped her develop the skills to play him. He left that concern for another time and hopped into the truck just in time for Parker to screech past him onto the highway leaving skid marks and several terrified commuters in her wake. Eliot sighed and followed at a more leisurely pace sending up a prayer for whatever cop would try to pull over his taser happy thief.

He had known he would not beat her home so he instead had chosen to enjoy the ride, picing up Chinese at a place he noticed on the way to the loft and following the speed limits the entire way. When he pulled up to the House he found the second garage door left open for him and impatient Parker sitting on the roof glaring from her perch. "You took forever!" she shouted waving her sketch pad in an effort to get his attention.

"I got food." He replied holding up the bag of fortune cookies that had made the cashier look at him like he was a crazy person.

"Yummy." Eliot didn't even bother making a motion to catch her as she dropped lightly onto the hood of his still running truck with barely a sound. "Did you get egg rolls?" she asked ignoring him in favor of digging into the bags. He jerked them away from her and nodded to the front door; she scowled but seemed to get the hint as she opened the door allowing him entry. He placed the bags on the counter and Parker immediately started in on them. "Ew yours." She handed him a container of beef teriyaki with her nose scrunched up in a sign of disgust as she bit into her egg roll.

"Did you make any progress with your sketch?" he asked settling in with a plastic fork he requested along with the chopsticks for Parker.

"I want it to be all books; Sophie thought I was for real crazy." Parker told him pushing the sketch pad across the table. It was pretty much what he expected with floor to ceiling bookshelves but she had added a platform with three raised steps on the far side of the room. She had re-positioned the furniture so that the elevated platform would serve as a backing for the couch and chairs already in there and a couple of desks and a white board could go where the furniture currently was.

"What's this?" he asked gesturing to the changes already deciding the best way to essentially lift the library four feet.

"That way we can work in there. I help Nate sometimes with the break-ins and I know you do to so now we can both help him together!" she smiled at him brightly. "And we can use it to plan our own jobs if we get them."

Eliot couldn't have stopped himself if he tried as he reached over and hauled a startled Parker into his lap hugging her tightly. When he had moved in with Amy it had been a fight every step of the way over colors and furniture placement and drapes. Nobody had ever just casually drawn him into their lives like Parker did; the entire thing was made better by the fact that she had no idea what she had actually done. She was the first person to invite him into her life for pure reasons. He took an extra moment to enjoy the feeling of her breath washing over his neck and her entire body pressed against him before he placed her back on her own stool.

"Hmm." She scooted back a bit still a bit shocked by his hug. "Huggy Eliot… does that happen a lot?" she asked watching him warily as he picked up his beef and happily continued to eat. "Eliot?" she asked again when he didn't answer her. "Are you going to do that more?" she asked again. She paused for a moment longer before reaching out and poking him in the arm with her chopstick. "Are you still there?"

"Huggy Eliot will happen again." He told her smirking as she froze clearly unsure what to do with that statement. He chuckled and took the last bite from his food before heading off to the garage to get the extra potting soil and get his plants transferred into the ground.

"Can you at least warn me next time!" she asked almost scaring him half to death. He had been so thrilled that his impromptu hug hadn't earned him a chopstick in the eye or something equally unpleasant that he forgot how damn quietly she could walk.

"Why? Didn't you like it?" he asked pulling both bags of fertilizer and a hoe from the truck before heading off into the backyard leaving her spluttering behind him. She had been correct about her yard; the fence came to about chest height and was a solid brown color that matched the trim of the House. She had easily enough room for his garden and a dog, he could even see putting in a pool next summer if they wanted to. He ignored the vision in his head of a swing set with children crawling all over it and instead focused on finding the right spot for his garden.

This time he heard her coming up behind him breathing a bit harder as she carried the last bag of fertilizer on her back. "What is this for?" she asked clearly choosing to ignore the hugging issue.

"That feeds the plants." He told her using the hoe to mark off a ten by ten area to start the garden.

"It's dirt." She told him poking the open bag lightly with her foot, "Plants eat dirt?"

"They get nutrients form the soil, like how we get ours from vegetables." He told her raising an eyebrow pointedly. Her desire to avoid anything green was the stuff of legends around the Leverage offices. The battles waged over lettuce in salad between the pair of them were epic.

"I don't want to eat something that eats dirt." She told him turning on her heel. He watched her leap gracefully onto the picnic table and use that to spring onto the roof easily catching the edge and pulling herself up. Instead of facing the street she turned so she faced him and pulled her sketch pad from under her shirt. He continued to watch her until she turned to a new page and became absorbed in another sketch. As he began planting his garden he couldn't help but think that he hoped they would have more nights like this him working in the garden and her close by and safe, it was almost perfect.


	6. Chapter 6

He had woken earlier then the day before, three hours of sleep was still excellent for him and considering how much work he had accomplished since he woke he considered it a good thing. He had taken all the books off her shelves and moved them up into one of the other guest rooms and begun dismantling the shelves starting with the worst. Two had broken just by the simple act of removing the books and he allowed himself a moment of relief that he had noticed the problem before it killed somebody.

He had been working steadily for a few hours and made it through half the room before he felt her presence enter the room. He turned and couldn't help the small smile at the sight of her in an oversized sweatshirt and pants rubbing her eyes as she lent up against the door frame. He could almost imagine in that moment a younger Parker doing the same thing, perhaps the girl she was before the world got ahold of her. "Loud." She muttered collapsing into the only chair in the room he hadn't put tools or wood on.

"Sorry darlin' had to get this started." He handed her the drawing he had folded in his back pocket and she smiled up at him.

"Can we have breakfast?" she asked the promise of something to do during the day motivating her fully into wakefulness.

"There's an omelet in the microwave just set it for two minutes and you'll be good to go." He told her smirking as she scurried off at the promise of one of his omelets. He had first made her one when they had been stranded at the site of the emergency plane landing their first year working together. All the people on the flight had been put on a no-fly list while the incident was investigated and Nate had managed to find them a house to rent while they waited.

He had been the only one to notice Parker holding herself more gingerly then usual and it took him a moment to remember she had been down in the cargo hold with hundreds of bags flying through the air while the plane had been on its crash course with the ground. It was nearly impossible to imagine her getting out of that without having been banged up a bit. That had been the moment when he honestly began to admire her as a person more than just a thief. Hardison would have been whining all night, Sophie would have had Nate all over her and been enjoying the attention but Parker had simply retired to her room and suffered in silence.

Eliot knew she wouldn't have any desire to be fussed over, something he was sympathetic toward and had instead decided to make her one of his famous omelets. His mother had been particularly sore after an appearance from his father and Eliot had seen a cooking show with magic omelets he made one for his mother. The smile on her wounded face had made them his go-to food to cheer his mother up and after seeing a similar look on Parker's face every time he noticed her having a bad day or a job didn't go the way she wanted it to she got his mother's special omelets.

"Yummy." She re-entered the library rubbing her stomach and Eliot glanced down at his watch. He had been sitting thinking about Parker for nearly twenty minutes and she was now staring at him clearly wondering what was next.

"Go get dressed and we'll go to the hardware store." He told her smiling as she once again was off like a shot much more awake now that she had eaten. As she got ready he began taking the wood scattered through the room to the garage, he loaded it into the back of the truck that he left parked in the driveway the night before.

"Hey!" The voice of a young boy stopped him and he peered around the side to see four children none any more than seven sitting on a bikes at the end of the driveway staring at him. "You stealing that stuff?" the kid at the lead of the pack, a young child with dark hair who was clearly the oldest of the group asked glaring at Eliot from his perch.

"Nope, I'm fixing it." He replied, he didn't have the heart to be mad at the little boy who was very similar to himself at that age.

"Hard to fix in your truck." The boy accused, "We watch after her stuff when she's not here so you better watch it." He threatened as Eliot fought as hard as he could against the smile that appeared on his face at the realization that this group of neighborhood kids had adopted Parker as their own and were willing to threaten complete strangers to protect her.

"It's ok Jimmy." Parker bounded out of the House and past Eliot to high-five the kids on the bikes. "Eliot come here!" she demanded hands on her hips as the kids put their bikes down onto the sidewalk. "Guys this is Eliot he's my new roommate." She announced tugging gently on his shirt sleeve. "Eliot that's Jimmy." She pointed to the boy who had first confronted him. "Emma and Alice they're sisters." The two young red-headed girls smiled shyly at him while a young boy, about five hid behind them. "And that's Eric he's still little."

"Nice to meet you." Eliot nodded to the kids sending a wink in the direction of the little girls who blushed pink at the attention.

"Are you Parker's boyfriend?" Jimmy asked his tough-guy routine from earlier still firmly in place as he sized Eliot up.

"No we're friends though." Eliot answered feeling oddly like he was addressing Parker's father rather than a neighborhood kid that had likely only known Parker a few months.

"What kind of friends?" the boy asked as Parker pulled Eric out from behind the girls and swung the boy who was squealing with Joy up into the air while the girls danced around them.

"I don't know what you mean kid." Eliot put down the door to the truck bed and sat down patting the bench beside him. Jimmy looked between him and the seat before making the jump to join him. Both of them sat facing the street taking in the sights of Saturday morning in a suburban Boston.

"My Aunt lives with us and she watches us during the day and after school when it's not summer. She has friends who are boys that come over and they hang out and go shopping and watch movies and stuff I can hang out with them." Jimmy paused in his explanation clearly trying to find the words to explain what he wanted to say. Though Eliot had a good idea where the conversation was going he didn't interrupt allowing the child to gather his thoughts. "Sometimes though she has other friends who go into her room and stay there and then if they do come out they're mean to me or my sister. She's not here because she's just a baby and mommy likes to see her when she's not at work but Auntie Danielle says that they're her friends too. Which kind of friend are you?"

Eliot took a moment to marvel at the child's ability to string his thoughts together so coherently for someone so young. He then allowed himself a flash of dislike for this aunt who apparently used baby-sitting time as an excuse to get lucky. Eliot's eyes drifted over to Parker who had put down Eric and was leading the children in a game of tag the four of them running through the yard laughing and tripping over each other and he felt a pang of longing for a life he would never have. He could have children sure and they could live in a wonderful house like the one Parker owned, if his feelings in that area got their way they would be Parker's children. Despite the fact that those things were entirely possible he knew full well that he would never stop looking over his shoulder and Parker wouldn't stop being who she was, he knew full well they could never be normal.

Jimmy coughed politely at his side clearly bored of waiting for Eliot to think of an answer. "Can I talk to you man to man for a second?" Eliot asked, he could practically hear the child sitting up straighter at the thought that Eliot viewed him as an equal.

"I guess." He answered clearly trying to make his voice a bit deeper in an attempt to sound more like Eliot.

"Between you and me I want to be Parker's boyfriend one day when we're both ready." He paused for a moment surprised that the words didn't feel that strange now that they had been said to another person. It didn't surprise him or even make him uncomfortable. Though he hadn't acknowledged it he knew full well that he was going to try to date Parker, he had to know what he was feeling or he would never be able to move on. "But even if I did become her boyfriend, I would not be mean to you I like you."

"Really?" Jimmy asked Eliot turned and faced the child who stared back in that way that only children do. It was the face of someone who will believe whatever you say no matter what. For Eliot the face of a child was like the face of his mother, there was no lie he would tell that face.

"I have a lot of respect for someone who takes care of their friends." Eliot gestured to where the children and Parker had stopped running around and were lying on the grass tickling each other. "I'm a lot bigger then you and you didn't know I was but you still confronted me to try to help Parker and since she's my best friend I like you for protecting her too."

"I guess you're ok." Jimmy told him holding out his hand for a shake in a gesture Eliot assumed he had learned from his father. He took the motion for what it was and shook the boy's hand just as seriously as he would have Nate or Hardison's. "And don't worry I won't tell Parker that you like her, my friend Danny told Julie in my class that I liked her and it made me really mad."

"I'd be mad too." Eliot shared stepping down onto the pavement. "Guess we should check on them."

"Yep, girls can get into trouble if you're not careful." Jimmy commiserated clearly happy to have someone to talk to about the woes of only having girls and little boys to play with.

"Eliot help!" Parker yelled clearly out of breath as she squirmed around trying to avoid the kids who had apparently ganged up on her. Eliot rushed forward and instead of helping Parker began tickling her as well her shrieks of laughter drawing the attention of the entire neighborhood. Most smiled and shook their heads leading Eliot to believe that this behavior was common for Parker and the children. One woman however started across the street toward them towing another behind her. Eliot lifted Parker out of the fray of children unable to tell if they were upset or just looking to make introductions.

"That's Jimmy's mom and aunt." Parker whispered in his ear once she caught her breath.

"Parker!" The older of the two women, a warm kind looking person with long brown hair the same shade as her sons called out to them.

"Hi" Parker replied suddenly much more like the Parker he knew that got uncomfortable in social situations.

"We just wanted to meet your friend sweetie." The younger woman told them not even paying attention to Parker her eyes and he imagined her hormones focused on him instead. "Danielle Holden, this is my sister Rachel it's a pleasure to meet you." She held out her hand clearly expecting him to kiss the back of it. Eliot barely refrained from rolling his eyes, women like that expected every man to be their prince charming or character from whatever romance novel they were reading. He took her hand and shook it moving closer to Parker in the hopes that the woman would draw her own conclusion.

"I saw you talking with Jimmy" Rachel told him watching her son who had joined the tickle fight that Eliot had pulled Parker out of. "It seemed serious I hope he wasn't misbehaving."

"Not at all." Eliot told her, it was clear how much this woman loved her son and he found it hard to believe that both she and Danielle had come from the same family. "He's a great kid."

"And he certainly has taken a shine to Parker here." Danielle tossed in, "She's quite the child whisperer, I don't think there's a single kid on this block that doesn't just adore her. We've been trying to get her over for dinner one of these nights to thank her."

"You have?" Parker asked perking up at the thought of a home cooked meal. "You should just ask next time."

"We would love to have you over Parker and Eliot as well of course." Rachel told her placing a hand on Parker's shoulder. "I really do appreciated the time you spend with Jimmy I know he can be a handful and I would love you to meet Jane the new baby. How about Sunday dinner does six work for you?"

Eliot looked over at Parker who was already looking to him for some kind of social cue. "Only if we can bring desert."

"It's settled then!" Danielle smiled and hugged both of them tightly making sure Eliot felt her breasts pressed up against his chest. He repressed a shudder at the smell of too much perfume and hairspray. He felt Parker squirming to get loose beside him and took it upon himself to release them both from the hug.

"Yay!" Jimmy exclaimed running over with the others tagging along behind.

"Let's head home kiddo, time for lunch." Rachel took the younger children by the hand clearly intending to drop them at their respective homes as well. "We will see you Sunday." She called over her shoulder as she her sister andthe children walked away.

"Quite the group of people you've met here." Eliot told Parker who seemed sad to see them go.

"They're more fun than grown-ups!" Parker defended hopping into the truck.

"I'm a grown-up." Eliot told her as he backed the truck out of the driveway careful of any other neighborhood children he might see running around.

"But your Eliot." She told him like that would explain everything. Before he could ask for any kind of elaboration on that answer she had turned up the radio and was singing along to some god awful pop song Sophie had introduced her to as they drove down the street.

AN: I just realized that as much as I love Parker and Eliot this story would get pretty boring with just the two of them so I spent the last few days making up a cast of Parker's neighbors and Archie's family. That's probably the biggest group you'll meet them in but I always saw Parker getting along better with kids then with adults.

Thanks for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

Though he could become violent easily Eliot was a man who was not easily frustrated, at least not in any way that mattered. He had developed almost a superhuman patience where Parker was concerned but had begun to realize about in hour into their trip to the hardware store that it didn't always apply in a public setting. It had taken seconds for him to realize that bringing the thief with a fetish for jumping off large objects to a warehouse stocked with floor to ceiling shelves was a bad idea. She had been with him one second and gone the next as was her way. He was purchasing the wood for the floor that would be delivered in three weeks and it seemed he turned his back and she disappeared. He had seen evidence of her presence in a stack of overturned coffee makers blocking isle seven. Or all the fans turned on full blast in isle twelve sending stacks of paperwork flying through the isle.

He knew she was near, likely following him from higher in the store and he couldn't help his growl of frustration when he walked past yet another group of employees discussing the odd goings on in the store that day. "You're trying to make this difficult, you know I can't pick what you want if you aren't here to help." He muttered to the rail of his shopping cart as he headed into the wood section to try to find something that would match the floors to use for the bookshelves. He heard a loud ding the signal of an incoming text message and despite his frustration allowed a small smile.

_FROM: Parker_

_I like green but you live there too. Sophie says if you share a space you should share it's design but she was fighting with Nate about the office and she yelled it… she also told me that people say stuff they don't mean to convince people to do stuff they don't want to do… which do you think it is?_

Eliot lowered the phone and looked around carefully, he hadn't spoken that loudly so she had to be close although she had very good hearing so not as close as the average person. After a few moments of looking he sighed admitting the futility of his actions, if Parker didn't want to be found Parker would never be found. "It's more fun to pick it together." He answered back his voice a bit louder this time garnering him some odd looks from the group of employees to his back.

"Prove it." Eliot smiled as Parker came up behind him either taking his argument seriously or simply bored of running around in the rafters. He chose to think she was listening to him, it made him feel a bit better to think that she took him seriously.

"First off." He reached out and took her hand in his without warning. She stiffened slightly and furrowed her eyebrows staring at their clasped hands. "There is not a chance I'm losing you to the rafters again." He informed her, "It's this or I'm locking you in the car."

"The car can't hold me." She replied still looking at their linked hands. Watching her face carefully Eliot maneuvered them so that their fingers were laced together and her palm was pressed into his. "Is this like huggy Eliot?" she asked finally looking up at him curiosity plain as the nose on her face.

"I suppose." He answered, "Plus I like touching you." He answered tugging her along behind him and pushing the cart one handed chuckling lightly as that comment caused her to fall silent clearly contemplating the meaning of his words.

Parker still had not said a word by the time they exited the store other than her scoff at the total which Eliot had paid without question. He released her hand on the way to the truck in order to direct the employee who was pushing the other cart of the stuff they were taking home that day. Between the pair of them it took only a few moments to load the truck and when Eliot looked around for his partner in crime he found her already in the truck fiddling with the radio. He handed the young kid a twenty ignoring his stammered protests that he wasn't someone who needed to be tipped and hopped into the driver's seat of the truck.

"Are you gonna ask me about it?" Parker asked after a few moments on the road.

"Ask you about what?" Eliot replied. With Jimmy he had been able to anticipate the direction of the conversation but he had learned early on never to make that mistake with his blonde companion. You could be talking to her about football one second and the next realize she thought you were discussing how best to break into a Swiss bank.

"When Hardison and I pretended to make out for the naked men he just wanted to talk about it it's kind of the same thing as the hand holding but you don't want to talk." She explained. Eliot had to force his eyes to remain on the road as she spoke and he processed her reply. The initial comment about naked men had him desperately confused until he recalled Parker playing with the miniaturized statues of David they had stolen for Sophie. She had run them around the office with tiny handkerchiefs tied around their neck proclaiming them super naked men and hid them around the office enjoying Sophie's panic every time she couldn't find one.

"That's different." Eliot told her ignoring the part about her making out with Hardison, unable to remove the gnawing feeling in his gut that told him he was pursuing his friend's girl and that went against the bro code.

"How?" she pushed he heard the leather squeak as she turned to face him quite clearly unwilling to wait for them to have the discussion. Eliot pulled into the parking lot of a suburban development empty due to the weekend and stepped out of the car quickly glancing at Parker to let her know she should join him.

"It's different because I'm not concerned about defining what we are." Eliot told her, he didn't have to look to know she was confused. "Hardison was sure that the kiss meant you two were going to get married have kids and live happily ever after." He looked over at her and saw her contemplating his words clearly doing her best to listen and understand. "I'm not worried about forever." He stepped closer to her pushing her back into a pile of two by fours still stacked up and in their bundle. He took her hand in his and smiled at the now familiar jolt of attraction. "It makes me feel better to know that you're there. I don't touch many people so I like touching you because it doesn't make me uncomfortable. I don't need to define this I just need to know that I like it… is that ok?" he asked searching her unreadable face for some reaction to his words.

"It doesn't scare me like with other people." She told him reaching up and putting her other hand over his. "When Sophie touches me it's weird and it makes her sad that she hugs me and I don't like it… I know she wants me to like it." She reached out tentatively and wrapped her arms around his middle just light enough that he could feel the pressure. He wrapped his arms securely around her and pulled her closer to him burying his face in her hair and relishing the feeling of having her wrapped up and safe in his embrace. "Why doesn't it scare me?" she whispered in what he and the rest of the team had dubbed her little girl voice. It was the child in Parker who never got the chance to grow up; they had seen her most during her breakdown after she had gone to the psychic show with Nate. The child who kept asking why and insisting she had done nothing to be treated the way she had.

"Because you know that I wouldn't hurt you." He pulled back from the hug and rested his forehead against hers. "Sometimes we all need someone who makes us feel safe, you make me feel safe and warm and comfortable. So sometimes I like to touch you so that I can feel that."

"I won't hurt you either." She told him conviction clear in her voice, "I won't even poke your bruises anymore." She declared tilting her face slightly to look up at him. She was smiling but it took everything in him not to kiss her. He had never stood this close to Parker before, the ground was slightly raised so they were almost of equal height and there were scant inches separating their lips as their breath mingled. He knew she had just spoken and that there was a response he should give but all he could do was tighten his grip on her frail body.

"I'm glad." He was sure his voice was much deeper than normal that the passion he felt for Parker in that moment was searching for any way out and was positive that even the socially awkward Parker could sense it.

"Let's go build stuff." Eliot had never been happier for Parker's innocence as she bounded away from him toward the truck. It almost made him feel like a monster, she was not like the women he picked up in bars. Parker was different she was special and not in a taking a small bus kind of way but in the sense that she wasn't someone he could enter into a causal relationship with.

For one he couldn't bear the thought of hurting her, seeing her eyes fill with tears… he had witnessed it once and that was more than enough. For another he would likely be murdered by Nate, made to drop out of existence by Hardison, and Sophie would use her charms to find someone to burn the body. He had been in relationships before and he knew full well that the ones that started based off the overwhelming urge to kiss someone, the urge he had just experienced did not every end well. He needed to build a foundation with Parker. Especially with Parker, a relationship that started on sex most often never became more and he wanted more than anything to become more with Parker.

"Hurry up!" she honked the horn a few times with the hammer he bought her, she had been over the mood about the silver hammer with the green handle and the green tool belt that went with it he had just been shocked he could get it out of the store without her noticing. Though now he better understood her preoccupation.

"I'm coming hold your damn horses." He grumbled as he entered the truck.

"Eliot." Parker spoke his name with a seriousness that was echoed in the set of her face and Eliot stopped a moment before starting the car.

"What's wrong now Parker?" he asked concerned she had gotten wind of his momentary slip when they had been standing outside.

"I don't like horses." She told him solemnly. For the second time in less than five minutes this woman had tested his control over his body. It took just as much strength to keep a straight face as he nodded solemnly.

"I know." He replied after taking a moment to compose himself. Parker nodded then turned buckling her seatbelt as he started the truck. After a while he felt her pick up his hand and lace their fingers together. She allowed their joined hands to fall to the center of his bench seat and the look on her face dared him to say anything. He simply smiled and squeezed her hand lightly as he drove them home.

A/N: I have returned. I just want to thank everyone for their paitence, for most I'm sure as summer approaches it can free up time but unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) I have taken a second job for the summer. This story has already gone off on it's own little way and hits me with the start writing stick at 1am after I've already taken Melatonin to help get to sleep in an attempt to combat my chronic insomnia. I hope the stick comes out a few more times and soon because just like you I'm curious to see where it goes... I also hope it's coherent...


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Those of you who are familiar with my writing know that I do not often do authors notes at the beginnings of chapters or long ones. I'm afraid my friends that today I must break that tradition (though hopefully this will not be too long). I received a review from someone informing me that a comment I made in the last chapter about a short bus offended them. I wanted to take this opportunity to apologize for any hurt feelings that may have caused that reader or anyone else who chose not to say anything. That being said I do take offense to the fact that this reviewer has chosen to disregard what I think is a pretty good story (feel free to correct me if you disagree) due to two words. I have a brother who suffers from FAS who does take a 'short bus' to school. My family has always believed that handling this situation with humor is the best way. To make him understand that while there are those who are cruel and will choose to torment him for his differences sometimes a smile and a giggle is enough to make them go away. My brother has an amazing sense of humor and has taken to teasing us in return about our own shortcomings. As someone who lives with a difficult family situation I do understand how this comment can be offensive. However unless I receive more comments from people who would like me to change that part of the story I plan to leave it as is, if I do change it the change will be minor and not affect the general plot of the story. I will also be PMing this individual this authors note as well in the hopes that it will if not encouraging them to continue reading it will at least sooth any hurt feelings.

That being said I hope everyone enjoys the premiere tonight as well as this chapter of my story!

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><p>Upon their return home Eliot had immediately returned to the work he had started that morning. He knew the library was the biggest of the projects they were undertaking and he didn't want to put it off until they started work again. Unless Nate learned his lesson this might be their last break for a while. Parker had busied herself bringing in all the supplies they had purchased and then assisted him in the library. She had tried to remove a shelf with a crowbar but after hitting herself in the head with the shelf and him on the toe with the crowbar he put her on book duty. As she ferried the rest of her novels upstairs he finished removing the bookshelves the process going much quicker with Parker giving him descriptions of some of her books. He found out that she had not read them all only most; she took them from houses she robbed. She was curious to see what rich people missed so she often took a worn or well used book from their homes to see if it would show up in the police report.<p>

Eliot sighed and took a step back as the last shelf hit the ground with a satisfying thud. As he looked around the now bare room Parker returned after storing the last of her piles of books. "Are we done now?" she asked him. Since their conversation at the housing development she had taken to standing a bit closer to him but also seemed to have let down the guard she put up since he moved in.

"For today, we'll start on the frame for the second floor tomorrow." He moved a few tools and took a seat on one of the leather couches simply looking at the blank walls proud of his handiwork. "What was in here before the shelves?"

"Pictures from the vault, I coded you for that by the way. I'm not sure if you have anything worth putting in there I didn't see anything when we were packing your stuff but you might keep it with you." She told him her expression making it clear that she was once again uncomfortable.

Eliot was having trouble figuring her out, it was clear that she wanted him there. The little things she did made it obvious. He had caught her on one of their breaks arguing with the cable company about adding the fight channels and pay-per-view matches to their lineup. Things like that and giving him a code to the safe proved that he was welcome. But she was always so uncomfortable when she told him about the things she did for him. He had thanked her with a hug and a kiss on the cheek for every single thing she did so she had to know he was grateful.

As she stretched in place Eliot chose to put that question on the back burner and take a moment to admire the graceful form of his partner. "I want Mac-And-Cheese!" she announced before bounding out to the kitchen gleefully. Her mention of food reminded him of the dinner invitation for the next night, he had no desire to be hit on by Danielle while Rachel shot him embarrassed looks and Parker continued to remain oblivious.

"Do you think we can get out of that dinner with Jimmy's family?" Eliot asked entering the kitchen to find Parker sitting on the counter bent over the stove her face half in the pot of water she was waiting to boil.

"I thought you wanted to go?" Parker asked not moving her face though steam had begun to rise.

"They say a watched pot never boils." Eliot told her unable to take the younger woman seriously when she was hunched over a pot of water.

"I don't know what that means." She said finally looking up.

"It means it feels like it takes longer when you're watching." He said lifting her off the counter with ease. He took a moment a he should have done many years before to relish the feeling of her in his arms. She had such a big personality it amazed him sometimes how small she really was. She wasn't short per say but sinewy. Her weight barely registered as he carried her to the couch and sat down. He expected she would scurry off his lap in a second once he loosened his grip but to his surprise and pleasure she instead remained snuggled up to him her head on his shoulder.

"How come you don't want to go to dinner?" she asked after a moment of silence. Eliot shrugged knowing she would feel the movement.

"I guess I really don't mind if we go I just don't want anything bad to happen." He answered unsure how to explain that he didn't want Parker to become jealous and stab Danielle. Though she hadn't said it he knew his feelings for the blonde thief were reciprocated it was clear even then as she snuggled deeper into his embrace.

"What bad could happen?" Parker asked suddenly tense. "If you think they're going to poison us then we're supposed to switch plates with them and let them eat first. If they don't die it means we're safe." She told him matter of fact as though she had survived many a poisoning attempt in the past.

"I don't think anything that extreme will happen." He said coaxing her down to her former position. "I just want to make sure that everyone gets along."

"Ok I guess." Parker shrugged and then stood leaving Eliot on the couch a bit put out that she felt her food was more important than their discussion. He heard the telltale sound of noodles rustling into the pot and stirring. He re-entered the kitchen and found her staring determinately at the floor while holding a spatula at the ready.

"What are you doing?" he asked, her eyes flicked to the stove for a split second before landing on him.

"Not watching." She answered before returning her gaze to the floor tile she had been so enamored with just in time to miss his broad smile.

"You're being a bit literal Parker." He informed her stepping closer and removing the spatula from her hand despite her death grip on the plastic tool.

"You said…" she began but before she could continue Eliot clamped a hand over her Mouth.

"I remember what I said." He told her wrapping his free arm around her body and pulling her close so she couldn't step back. "It's just a saying." He whispered softly. He had been unprepared for his body's reaction to her close proximity. In a matter of days touching her had become a normal thing for him but she was not normally this close to him in a kitchen that was already steaming hot from her cooking.

It was apparent that Parker also felt the shift as she stopped squirming to get loose and instead remained perfectly still. He was pleased to note that she had not frozen up like a board but instead was still pliant in his arms reflecting her trust in him not to allow any harm to come to her. "Did I ever tell you you're beautiful?" he asked removing his hand from where it covered her mouth to push a lock of hair that had fallen forward in their struggle behind her ear. Parker chose not to speak instead simply shook her head in the negative.

"I remember that job right after Sophie left when you were in those damn dresses, I almost had a heart attack the first time I saw you in that." He whispered this into her ear pulling her close and swaying her back and forth to a tune only he could hear.

"That's bad right?" she responded just as quiet and just as caught up as he was.

"Not in that context Parker." He told her pressing his lips to her forehead. She looked up at him when he pulled back surprised at the gesture. He took a moment to search her eyes looking for even a hint of fear or uncertainty; instead he found only trust and a bit of heat if he looked carefully. "I want to kiss you." He said, he felt her stiffen for a moment and in that instant the spell was broken for him. The desire was still there but her reaction told him she wasn't ready. "But I'll settle until you're ready. Momma always said to make your intention's known. Here it is then I intend to kiss you, hug you, love you, and for damn sure do some less than gentlemanly things to you but only when you ask." She looked up at him sharply.

"What do you mean when I ask?" she questioned her mind still trying to process the first half of his statement.

"When you're ready for this." He pulled her close breathing in her scent and placed a soft gentle kiss to the corner of her Mouth lingering a moment longer then he planned, his self-control wavering in the eyes of what he so desperately wanted. "For us to be together, all you have to do is say the word and I'll be there waiting for you." He took her hand in his chuckling on the inside at her shocked expression before he placed a gentle kiss to her knuckles and left her to her dinner retreating to his bedroom.

If asked years from then Eliot Spencer would freely admit he had no idea how he forced his body to leave that room. Despite knowing that she wasn't ready for them it took sheer willpower to pull him away from her adorably confused expression and her hand still suspended in the air where he had let go. He would however add that that was the moment he was finally able to admit to himself that Parker had completely stolen the most important thing he owned, his heart.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Dedicated to Mooney, for some reason I thought you said your birthday was NEXT monday not LAST monday. Happy belated anyway!

He knew Sophie would say it was male posturing, Nate would believe himself above it, and he was pretty sure Hardison had wet dreams about it. There was just something about jealousy in a woman that made a man feel that much more powerful, or sure of himself. Especially when he was in a relationship with a difficult woman; or in Eliot's particular situation trying desperately to be in a relationship with a difficult woman.

Their arrival for dinner at Jimmy's house exactly on time and had spent a few minutes in the kitchen where Rachel complimented Eliot on the home-made pies he had put together for desert. That was when disaster stuck, apparently they had missed the memo about the dinner being a formal one because Danielle came sauntering into the room in a short red dress that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. From the look on her face Eliot could see that Rachel did not approve of her sister's attire but chose not to comment.

Since the kitchen the other woman had not left his side for a second and Parker had become increasingly more angry as time went on. "I can pull her out if you want to talk to Parker." Rachel whispered so her sister who was bending over directly in front of him to turn on the radio would not hear. Eliot took the opportunity to look at Parker who was red faced and seething from her seat on the couch where Danielle had forced her after taking the seat next to Eliot.

"I think that would be a good idea." He whispered back smiling gratefully. If he wanted to he could have listened in on the whispered conversation between the sisters but instead he focused on holding back the smug smile on his face. He had a pretty good idea that Parker felt the same way but for a man to admit what he had and receive no response was a bit jarring for the ego. She had even gone out of her way to avoid him all morning.

He had begun working on the supports for the floor that he would be putting in to the library and he didn't see hide or hair of her until he heard the piano music from the living room. He had only seen her actually play once in his life and the look of rapture on her face was breathtaking in its simplicity. The Parker he had known before he came across her playing in a hotel bar could not focus her entire energy on anything. Even when she was stealing there were countless things she had to keep track of that kept her brain busy as she worked. To see anyone so absorbed in anything to the exclusion of all else was an incredible thing, but for Parker it felt like a miracle.

He had learned that day that Parker saw and heard nothing when she played other than the notes before her so he had not worried about being silent when he approached. He took the opportunity presented to study the woman before him. Unlike Sophie and even Aimee she took little pride in her appearance. She almost always wore black and her favorite shoes came from Target not Saks, a good hair day was one she remembered to put a brush through it, only after Sophie had come along had she learned the finer points of a curling iron. He still remembered the odd leather hat she used to wear on jobs, he was glad they only saw it once and a while. Despite what the more cultured women would consider her lack of appreciation for clothing he thought Parker dressed just fine. Unlike Sophie though her clothing fit her well she could also move in it, the black he thought brought out her bright eyes and just made her smile, an incredibly rare thing all that more radiant.

He shook his head as the sisters left the room he needed to get himself back on track, he was getting caught up in his thoughts and Parker needed to be his priority.

"What's wrong?" he asked slowly getting up and approaching her. She was known to run when confronted with both an emotional and physical presence and the thought of her jumping out the window and taking off in the home of someone who was not familiar with their extra-curricular activities did not strike him as appealing. He was surprised yet again however when instead of running away she jumped up and wrapped her arms and legs around him like a koala bear. She buried her face in his neck her warm breath cascading over his collarbone toward his neck. "Easy Parker what's wrong."

"I don't like her." Was the answer, slightly muffled by her face pressed up against the crook of his neck. "Stab her with a fork."

"No stabbing." He told her the old comment slipping off his tongue almost as a habit. "Why don't you like her?" he asked as he took her back to the love seat he had been sharing with Danielle and settling her across his lap instead of wrapped around him.

"You'll like her better." Parker replied not looking him in the eyes.

"Like her better then you?" Eliot asked incredulously. "Parker I don't like anyone better then you, except my mom but that's different." He answered honestly. She tilted her head up her eyes meeting his clearly looking for something as she stared into his eyes. For anyone else it would have been invisible, the way her body canted lightly toward him and she moved her head moving close enough that they were breathing the same air. After that tiny movement she paused clearly waiting for him to react, he found he didn't have it in him to pull back when she was making the choice and he began to lean forward as slowly as his self-control would allow. He was unwilling to force her into anything especially a kiss that would without fail complete his decent into Parker oblivion. He knew once he kissed her it would be the end, there would be no hope for another love, she was it.

"Hey guys!" Eliot jumped his near infallible senses unable to sense the arrival of Jimmy who had been at the store with his father when they had arrived. Eliot couldn't hold back the groan of frustration as Parker pulled back and greeted the small boy with a fist bump and a smile.

"Jimmy." Eliot put away his frustration and held out a hand for the young boy to shake which he did proudly. "And you must be his father." Eliot stood and faced the man lurking in the shadow of the kitchen entryway.

"David." He responded holding out a hand which Eliot took smiling as the man tried to test his strength. "I'm in real estate you?"

"I'm a recovery specialist." He answered. He liked that his job description unlike the others could be shared in conversation, recovery could mean anything and as long as he was vague if people asked he could get away with one less lie on his conscience.

"Sounds interesting." David replied releasing Eliot's hand with a friendly smile.

"Bit of travel but other than that it can be pretty boring." Eliot answered as Jimmy lead Parker up to his room. "You have a beautiful family." Eliot complimented the older man and instantly his respect grew at the smile that bloomed on David's face.

"I really do." he answered picking up two bouquets of flowers and his briefcase from a small side table on the way. "I bought these for Parker I hope that's alright." He told Eliot holding up one small bundle of flowers.

"It's a nice gesture." He was liking this guy more by the minute, he watched as he lifted a toddler out of the playpen in the corner of the room the small girl giggling as he tossed her up in the air. "This is Jane she's fourteen months." David handed him the small child who he instinctively cradled as he had his niece and nephew when they were born. The baby cooed happily and resumed attempting to eat her hand.

"Oh hi honey!" Rachel entered the room and greeted her husband with a light kiss before she turned to Eliot. "I see you met Jane, she seems to have taken to you quite well."

"I have nieces and nephews." He answered, "Babies are pretty easy once you get the hang of it it's when they get older you got to watch out."

"Too true Eliot, just too true." Danielle came up next to him under the pretense of stroking the baby's hair ignoring the infant's scrunched up face at the sound of her voice.

"And I have a GI Joe but I'm only allowed to play with him after I'm done my homework." Eliot heard Jimmy's voice echoing down the stairs. It was funny how the lack of footsteps other than the child's betrayed Parker's presence as well.

"I just have bunny he doesn't like guns." Parker responded as they appeared in the kitchen. She spared a glare for Danielle but didn't acknowledge the woman otherwise which Eliot considered a step in the right direction. It was then that their eyes locked and Eliot couldn't stop his breath from catching. Despite the fact that they hadn't kissed his body still reacted as though he had held her in his arms and kissed the stuffing out of her as he wanted. He held onto the baby a little tighter only the squirming infant stopping him from pulling her up into his arms and showing her with his body just how much she did affect him enough that Danielle's juvenile attempts at seduction were nothing more than a joke.

There was an awkward silence in the room for a moment before Rachel began guiding everyone to the dining room taking Jane from his arms and placing her in her high-chair with a handful of cheerios on the tray to keep her occupied. As the meal of pot roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn was revealed both Eliot and Parker dove in as though they had never eaten before. "I'll have to get your recipe." Eliot mentioned halfway through his roast beef, "I can't quite pick out what seasoning this is."

"It's a secret, I'll tell you but you have to guard it with your life." Rachel responded with a giggle.

"So you'll tell a complete stranger but not your devoted husband!" David's fake outrage prompted full out laughter from Rachel and a happy grin from Eliot. This was what he always imagined a happy childhood would have been like, minus the slutty aunt of course.

"So tell me Eliot where are you from I hear a bit of the country in your tone?" David asked as they all moved past the silence and settled in.

"I was raised in Kentucky but I joined the Army just out of school." He replied taking another bite of his food in an attempt to discourage further questions. It worked and they moved on to more cordial topics, Parker revealing that she had grown up around Boston but from her knowledge of the city he suspected that. It was when the moved on to desert that Danielle, silently fuming from her spot beside Jimmy began to attack.

"So where is your family Parker if you don't mind my asking. It's just I never see anyone but you, and now your friend Eliot at that house." She inquired her voice slightly slurred due to the four glasses of wine she had consumed along with not even half her dinner.

"Eliot is my family." Parker responded instantly and Eliot felt his heart soar. She hadn't even thought about it, like it was instinctual for her to claim him as a part of her life.

"What about your parents?" Danielle prodded.

"I don't know." Parker replied shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

"How do you not know about your parents?" the angry woman questioned further.

"Danielle." Rachel placed a hand on her sister's arm the warning clear in her tone.

"What Rach it's a simple question, what the hell happened to your parents?" she asked again.

"They were barred from seeing me four year after my brother died; I never bothered to look them up." Parker replied her head bowed and her hands clasped together.

"We're leaving now Parker." Eliot stood placing a hand between Parker's squeezing tightly so she would know he was there. "I'm sorry to go so abruptly dinner was delicious."

"Bye." Jimmy waved from his seat and Eliot spared the child a smile so he would understand that they weren't mad at him. Before the front door even closed he heard Rachel starting in on her sister clearly furious with her behavior.

"I don't like her." Parker muttered as they walked across the street to their home.

"I'm not a fan myself." Eliot responded though clearly she wasn't looking for an answer she was simply saying what she felt. "Parker." Eliot stopped and turned her to face him as they stood on their front porch. "I can forget what just happened in there if you want, we can pretend I never found out anything about your past and we can just continue as we have been. I'm going to give you as long as you want to think about it and let me know. I want you to know that if you decide to tell me about it, about anything that you've done or had done to you I won't judge you and I won't love you any less then I do right in this moment." With that he pressed his lips gently to hers holding on long enough for her to realize what was happening before he pulled away. She walked almost in a daze into the House and started up the stairs.

"Eliot." He heard her call his name softly and turned to face her where she stood at the top of the stairs looking down at him. "You were right something bad did happen at dinner." With that she made her way up the stairs silent as usual. Once she was gone from his sight he slammed his hands down on the kitchen table his white knuckled grip the only thing stopping him from heading back the way he came and giving that horrible woman a piece of his mind. A knock on the door startled him out of his rage and he allowed himself two deep breaths before walking slowly to it and opening it.

"Eliot." David stood before him with Parker's flowers clutched in his hand. "I wanted to apologize; Danielle is as I'm sure you saw a bit troubled. I'm truly sorry about what she did, clearly it's something that Parker didn't want to talk about and she just pushed." The rambling of the other man if nothing else showed Eliot that he was fed up with his sister in law's behavior as well and likely also tired of cleaning up her messes.

"It's not your fault." Eliot took the outstretched flowers as a peace offering and accepted them patting the older man on the shoulder. "How about a nightcap." Eliot pulled the door open further allowing the man into their home with a sympathetic smile.


	10. Chapter 10

It had taken only a moment for Eliot to light a fire in the living room and bring the older man a glass of brandy from the stash he brought over when he moved in. David accepted the glass with a smile and leaned back in his chair crossing his right leg over his left. "I know she's a handful but she's family you know. I can't ask my wife to throw her sister out onto the street, it just wouldn't be right."

"I won't begrudge you that David." Eliot spoke slowly weighing each word fully aware of the importance. "I'm just worried about Parker; she needs to be my priority."

"I can see how much you care about her. It's an incredible thing to look a woman in the eye and know that you would do anything for them isn't it." He winked at Eliot with a smile but Eliot was barely able to return the gesture. In that moment he realized that he never loved a woman the way he did Parker. He thought Aimee but he hadn't even been able to give her the only thing she truly wanted. She wanted a husband to stay and raise horses with her and her father. His devotion to his country and his service wouldn't allow him to give her that, or so he thought at the time. He would give up anything for Parker; he knew it without really even thinking about it. There was nothing, including his own life that he wouldn't give for the crazy little thief. "It's still new for you huh." David nodded clearly recognizing the look on Eliot's face. "But I'm glad you understand, when you love a woman like that the word no isn't in your vocabulary. You just spend the rest of your life praying they never realize the hold they have on you!"

"Parker's a tricky one." Eliot replied, "It's too easy to scare her off, makes me worried that I'll wake up one day and she'll be gone, no trace she ever really existed." For the first time he voiced his deepest fear since he began getting close to the blonde. If anyone could disappear completely it would be Parker, hell he didn't even know her last name!

"You'd search for her?" David asked though it wasn't really a question.

"Of course I would do anything for her." Eliot replied without even thinking.

"Even surrender your principles?" the other man had turned from curious and somewhat amused to contemplative and almost sad.

"What's going on David?" Eliot asked, he had never considered someone a friend so quickly, but he knew right away that David was a good person and in his book that was half the battle.

"Just some stuff at work." He answered taking another pull off his drink with a large sigh. "I found some irregularities in the paperwork when I was working on it last month. I'm pretty sure that someone is embezzling and I brought it up but nothing had been done. When I asked after the status I was told if I ever wanted to work again I would keep my mouth shut no matter what I saw."

"You should go to the police." Eliot told him after a moment of thought.

"I don't have any proof, as soon as they realized the mistake it was corrected, all my hard copies and evidence were destroyed." David sighed again. "I'm sorry to lay this on you but I feel like I can trust you and for someone in my position that's all it takes to get me spitting out stories like crazy." He stood and held out a hand. "I've kept you from comforting your woman long enough my friend."

"Give me some time." Eliot shook his hand in return, "I'll think on your problem, I may be able to help."

"Don't trouble yourself. I'll make sure that proper apologies are sent along to Parker, and tell her I'm sorry as well." David left then the only sign of his presence the empty glass Eliot held in his hand. It seemed trouble found him wherever he went. He was going to need Parker, together they could figure out how deep the corruption in the company went and then they could decide if they needed to involve the team.

The thought of returning to their lives before almost sickened him. He knew maintaining their new closeness in front of Nate and Sophie would be tough, but Hardison would be devastated. Even if Parker had no idea the young hacker was infatuated. Eliot knew it was nothing more than puppy love, Hardison did not spent a lot of time around beautiful women so when one like Parker who seemed almost attainable crossed his path it was like match to flame. Perhaps he should talk to Sophie about setting Hardison up on a few dates before he announced what was still a mostly one sided relationship.

"Is he gone?" a ghostly voice called out from somewhere above him.

"He is, did you hear what he said?" Eliot asked watching as she gracefully dropped down from the rafters just in front of him.

"He's sorry." She answered nodding, "I don't really know why though because it wasn't him that did that."

"He's sorry for what his family did. Sometimes as a man you have to take responsibility for what the people in your family do." Eliot replied with a shrug. For him it wasn't a question, an honorable man would stop by and extend his apologies David was an honorable man, which was the end of it for him.

"Do you apologize for me?" Parker asked walking back into the living room forcing Eliot to follow her in order to continue their conversation.

"Nah, most of the time you're right." He told her smirking.

"I got overloaded." She told him sitting curled up on one end of the couch. Eliot took a moment to run a hand through his hair. It was a stall technique Sophie had taught him to give him a moment to think before speaking. Parker must thing he liked petting himself with how often he was forced to do it in front of her, the girl jumped around so quickly in a conversation it was almost impossible to keep up especially as tired as the evening had made him.

"Overloaded how?" he asked after a moment's thought. He sat down at the other end of the couch prepared for a long discussion that he would only understand half of. He should have known that with Parker one always had to expect the unexpected.

"All the questions and everything that happened. Like when Hardison makes his little computer do all kinds of stuff like his big computer but it's just little so it breaks. It doesn't know how to do all the stuff the big one can so it breaks and it loses something." Eliot simply looked at her; she had her head turned down toward the sofa cushions as she softly pulled at a loose thread. "Sometimes if it has less to do then it doesn't break." She said finally her voice soft almost like a child.

"Sometimes if you give the weight to someone else, they can help you hold it." Eliot reached out tentatively and took one of Parker's hands in his pressing the cold thin fingers between his own. "That's what I'm here for Parker, I'm here to share your weight and you'll take some of mine. That's what a relationship is about, having someone else to lean on."

"What if we have too much?" she asked scooting closer to him clearly wanting to trust him but not quite there yet.

"That's what friends like Nate, Sophie, and Hardison are for. Even if it's something you can't talk to me about you can talk to them." The thought of her feeling like she could confide in one of them over him nearly killed him, but if it could help her change back into the strong confident women he knew. If it could help bring back his Parker who wasn't afraid of her own shadow, he would be OK with that.

"I like you better, you understand me." She admitted scooting just a tiny bit closer so her hip was pressed up against his knee where he had turned to face her.

"Come here." He lifted her easily ignoring her squeal of surprise and deposited her in his lap tucking her head down under his chin and lying flat out on the couch with Parker still a bit stunned on top of him. It took her a few moments but Eliot could literally feel the warmth fill his body as Parker melted into him with a soft sigh of contentment.

"You're like bunny but bigger." She told him softly giggling along with his chuckle at the comment. He had never been a cuddle but something about the fact that he could get one of the most skittish women he knew to let her guard down and just lay with him. There was something incredibly powerful about that fact it appealed to the animal inside him who wanted to stake his claim. It meant that his mate knew he could keep her safe and in that moment he vowed to never make her feel otherwise. He pulled the afghan off the back of the couch and settled it over the two of them taking the opportunity to pull Parker a bit closer and wrap his arms gently around her back. "Do you remember when you kissed me before?" she asked suddenly out of the blue still not looking at him.

"I do remember that, why do you ask?" he answered slowly hoping against hope that he knew where she was going with that question.

"I liked it I think." She said and began picking at his shirt; he was quickly realizing that was a nervous habit of hers when discussing personal things.

"You think?" he replied a bit disappointed that he had not received a better review but determined to knock her socks off next time.

"I was kind of surprised." She told him propping herself up on her elbows so she could look him in the eye. He took a hand from her waist and placed his behind his head stretching out and also giving her an escape should she decide she wanted it. As curious as he was to the direction of his conversation he would never leave her without a way out should she decide she needed it.

"I'm sorry about that darlin but don't worry next time you'll know." He said smiling reassuringly at her.

"Sophie says first kisses are awkward." She answered back still clearly trying to get some point across but unsure of how to say whatever was on her mind. "She says that is why actors practice before so that the first kiss won't be awkward."

"Sophie would know more about that then me; I was never much of an actor."

"Well I don't think that the ninja kiss counts as a first kiss because I wasn't really there for the whole thing." She explained slowly as though she was speaking to a child. A tone he imagined she picked up from Nate when he tried to tell her why she couldn't steal from random people on a job.

"I see." He was trying to say as little as possible until he understood where she was going with her rambling.

"So I think we should do it again to get the awkward one out of the way." She said, "Just in case we ever have to kiss on a job or anything, like when Hardison and I pretended to make out that time."

"Sounds perfectly logical." Eliot didn't hesitate once he had been given permission. He pulled her further up his body so their faces were even and moving in slowly so he couldn't be accused of 'ninja' kissing her again he pressed his lips gently to hers. He kissed her softly once then twice fighting his baser urge to claim in exchange for her comfort. Though he knew she would allow him to go further than just the soft closed mouth kisses he was pressing against her lips they were both too tired for that step. He kissed her softly once again and pushed her back gently when she would have gone in again for more.

"Don't worry babe now that I've started I don't think I'll ever be able to stop kissing you. For now just rest we'll see in the morning." He told her in response to the pout on her deliciously swollen lips. He couldn't resist just one more gentle kiss before he tucked her back in breathing her in and committing the last few moments of his life to memory.

**A/N: Finally inspiration struck in the form of Parker AND Eliot KISSING on LEVERAGE! I apologize for the long wait unfortunately my father has had some health problems in the past few weeks and between the hospital and trying to keep everyone sane it's been a long month. He's doing better and if they keep giving me inspiration like these last episodes expect many more updates very quickly. Even the last one where Hardison practically ignored Parker and Eliot helped her find her passion, so awesome! I figured since we got a TV kiss I might as well move up my timetable and give you guys a fic kiss as well. Hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you next time!**


	11. Chapter 11

For the first time in many years Eliot Spencer woke with a smile. The memory of the night before was still fresh in his mind, and if it hadn't been the feeling of Parker stretched out on top of him, the sound of her light snores, and the feel of her deep breathing would have brought it back quickly. He smiled softly and craned his head to get a view of the sleeping thief. He lifted his hand to move a strand of soft blonde hair that had fallen over her face and smiled placing a gentle kiss to her forehead. Her nose scrunched up and she shifted lightly against him arching her back into a stretch. "You're comfy." She told him wrapping her arms around him a bit tighter.

"That's the first time I've gotten that response." He muttered pressing his lips to the top of her head breathing her in as she sighed against him. He would never know exactly what it was that startled him, he honestly couldn't remember hearing anything that would normally set off his alarm but he knew something was wrong. With a twist of his body and a hand out to shove the coffee table he flipped them off the couch cradling her as best he could.

"Quite cozy I see." A familiar voice drawled from over the top of the sofa. Eliot barely restrained himself from shouting at the face of Tara Cole smirking down at him.

"I agree this was certainly not what I was expecting to find." Sophie agreed from a bit further back though her voice held no less amusement at their situation.

"I have to go." Parker muttered in his ear squirming out from under him and vanishing quickly up the stairs. Eliot groaned and flipped on his back covering his eyes with his forearm in an attempt to pretend Sophie and Tara hadn't sat on the couch and weren't waiting patiently for him to acknowledge them. He wished that enough time quietly on the floor would reverse time and he could restart the morning, minus two grifters with terrible timing of course.

"Why are you here?" he asked after finally accepting that the two would not leave until they got the answers they were looking for.

"We were taking Parker to lunch, we've had Sunday lunches every week that Tara is in town since our night out." Sophie answered. Just the sound of her voice made it clear to Eliot that she was burning with questions. They were questions he didn't feel up to answering so with a swift roll he was on his feet and following Parker up the stairs ignoring the protests of the two women.

He made his way up slowly, he couldn't be sure but he was willing to bet Parker was just as upset that their morning had been interrupted. His feeling was confirmed when a whoosh of air and the scent of jasmine flooded his senses from where she dropped down next to him. "Sophie texted me but I didn't get it I was asleep." She told him holding up her phone, likely just retrieved from her room judging by the full battery.

"It's ok, a little frustrating but ok." He answered honestly leaning up against the wall beside her. She looked up at him clearly curious about his comment.

"Frustrating?" she inquired tilting her head to the side and leaning up against the wall mirroring his position.

"It's not the way I wanted to wake up." He told her leaning closer so their noses were almost brushing.

"How did you want to wake up?" she asked stepping closer her body brushing his. There was no other response and he acted instantly. He turned his body pressing her back into the wall his lips only centimeters from hers. He didn't have long to wait as she wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him against her as she pressed their lips together. It was only a moment before he deepened the kiss pulling her closer to his body. As their tongues met it was not a battle as it had been with so many others, rather it was a kiss that spoke of pure passion. She ignited fire in him that he didn't know was possible and it only made him more desperate to never let her go. From their lips to their toes they were intertwined and in that moment Eliot had never felt so connected to another person. She pulled back slowly pulling his bottom lip between her teeth and nipping playfully. He growled deep in his chest and kissed her once softly on the lips as he pulled back.

"Something like that would have been nice." He replied smiling as he dodged her attempt to kiss him again thrilled at her little growl of frustration. "You have to get to lunch sweetheart." He stepped back and smiled at the glare she shot his way before turning on her heel and heading down the stairs. He waited at the top until Parker had led them out of the house ignoring all their questions and remaining stubbornly silent.

He made his way quickly to his room and changed into a new pair of jeans and shirt for the day before tossing his hair up in a quick ponytail. He had a feeling that Parker would become frustrated early into her day with Sophie and Tara and he wouldn't have as much time as he thought. He took the stairs two at a time and vaulted over the couch grabbing his car keys on the way out the door. His truck started without a problem and he took that as a sign that his mission was destined to be successful.

The drive was short and he had memorized the directions the night before in the hopes that he could convince Parker to make a trip to visit Hardison. In reality though he wished it happened in a different way the appearance of Sophie and Tara had freed up his afternoon. He smiled as he entered the dog kennel thrilled to be given another opportunity to make Parker's dream of a normal life a reality.

"Can I help you today sir." The girl at the desk smiled at him as he entered the building. He flashed a smile of his own in response and stepped up to his side of the desk.

"Yes mam, I'm here to adopt a dog." He answered ignoring her blatant perusal of his person.

"We just need you to fill this out first Mr.?" she trailed off clearly asking for a name.

"Spencer, Eliot Spencer." He replied taking the clipboard. The majority of the questions were rather simple name, address, telephone number. The next set were an attempt to find out how much time they were willing to spend with the new pet, followed by inquiries into what kind of dog they were looking for. He was careful to check the boxes for potty trained, good with kids, and energetic. He knew Parker would be bored in five minutes with a dog that would simply lie around the house all day.

He stepped toward the desk and handed the completed paperwork to the woman up front she looked it over checking to see that he had filled everything out. "Alright Mr. Spencer I'll take this to one of our adoption specialists." She headed off through a door behind her desk and he could hear the sounds of dogs barking and cats meowing clearly cut off by a sound proof door. Eliot shrugged at her abrupt departure and took a seat in one of the chairs perusing a pamphlet on the benefit of flea protection.

"Mr. Spencer." A man came out holding a hand in front of him to shake. Eliot nodded as he stood smiling at the older man in front of him. "I'm Daniel Halloran I'm one of our adoption specialists here. It's my job to find you a dog that you'll love."

"Glad to meet you, call me Eliot please." He replied following the man through the door the girl had gone to find him.

"All right Eliot, well I have to say your timing is kind of perfect. I have a dog that I think you are going to love." They went through another door this was an empty room with a few dog and cat toys scattered around the area. "Normally we are hesitant about sending dogs home on the first visit, especially when it's a joint household and the animal hasn't met both people involved but Harris is a special case." The man sat in one of the few chairs against the wall of the room.

"Special case?" Eliot asked joining the other man in a chair beside it.

"Harris is only two but he's been here since he was a puppy. He's half Jack Russell Terrier and half Golden Retriever with the energy of both. Unfortunately he had some heart problems as a puppy that made him hard to adopt. He's been her long enough that our administrators are considering sending him to a different kind of shelter despite the fact that he has only been eligible to be adopted for eight months."

"People want puppies right." Eliot said having heard the sob stories before.

"Exactly, but I understand you're looking for a dog that is housebroken." Daniel referred to the paperwork still in his hand.

"Yes my girlfriend and I have about three weeks of vacation time that we took but when we go back to work we don't want to come home to a House full of crap." Eliot answered secretly thrilled that he got to call Parker his girlfriend.

"Well Harris is fully potty trained and as you indicated you have a fenced in back yard I'm sure he will be quite comfortable with you if you'd like to meet him."

"His health issues." Eliot stopped the man who was already rising. "I hate to be rude but Parker has lost a lot of people in her life and if he's only going to live a few years…" Eliot trailed off hoping the older man would understand the question.

"He is perfectly healthy now. The surgery repaired a tear in his heart you will want his medical records forwarded to his new vet so they know to keep an eye on it but he should be just fine." Daniel replied seemingly pleased that Eliot took such an interest. "And of course all our animals are caught up on their shots and neutered." He mentioned as he exited the room. He returned only a moment later with a dog on a leash. The moment Eliot saw the animal he knew this was the one. It was essentially a miniaturized golden retriever. The dog's tail was wagging so hard his entire body was wiggling with the effort. The second he was released from the leash he bolted over to Eliot rearing back and placing his paws against his right leg. He was pleased to realize that with the dog reared up against him his head was level with his belt with the dog at the perfect height to be petted.

"He's soft." Eliot comment crouching down as the dog came up beside him snuggling into his leg clearly thrilled to be given someone's sole attention.

"Yes we thought he would lose it like most dogs but at two years old he's still got that puppy fur." Daniel answered smiling at Harris winding his way between Eliot's legs. "He's also quite the mouser we let him loose a few times in here and he's been very successful."

"I do have a garden; something to chase away the rabbits would be helpful." Eliot replied he knew this was the one, this was the dog that would make Parker's dream come true.

"Well he will definitely do that, I have to warn you he is a barker however."

"That's not a deal breaker, in fact it's the personality I was looking for." Eliot stood smiling as Harris jumped up again clearly hoping for more attention. "I'll take him."

A/N: As you can see this is a bit of a filler chapter. I knew I wanted to introduce the dog who is a tribute to my puppy minus the heart condition. Thanks to all of you for your well wishes about my father, fortunately he is doing quite a bit better and after almost two months is back at work. I appreciate your well wishes and thank you all for your patience.


	12. Chapter 12

Despite wanting to share the dog with Parker as soon as he could, Eliot had been glad when he was the first back to the House. It gave him a chance to get the squirmy Harris settled. It had taken three trips from his truck to bring in all the supplies while Harris followed every step of the way seeming content for the moment just exploring rooms at Eliot's pace. He had laid out a dog bed in the living room, bowls for food and water in the kitchen, and with the help of the dog who was now proudly carrying a green stuffed elephant had scattered the toys throughout the House.

When Eliot first heard the barking he had been warned about it was while he was in the back yard setting up the dog House beside a tree taking time out every few minutes to throw a tennis ball across the yard which the dog would Chase. "Eliot!" he heard a shout from the gate and that was the cue for Harris who charged full speed at a clearly shocked Parker who was apparently frozen in surprise. The dog reached her before Eliot could shout a warning and the force of the small animal colliding with the stunned blonde sent her flat on her back with Harris licking her face proudly.

"Hello fuzzy!" Parker giggled as the dog continued to lick her face. As Eliot approached the dog jumped off Parker and ran to him, Eliot barely had time to pat his head before he was off and jumping on Parker again. Eliot sat on the grass across from Parker as Harris continued to run back and forth between the pair of them letting out excited barks every few moments.

"Parker this is Harris, he's our dog." Eliot said after a moment. He had been unable to look away from the expression of pure Joy on her face. Her eyes were lit up as they followed the puppy's excited journey back and forth from one of them to the other.

"He's soft!" she exclaimed as the dog settled down between them clearly exhausted after almost fifteen minutes of running back and forth between the pair. He had stretched out his entire body along the length of Parker's leg and had tucked his nose under her calf and heaved a great sigh as he closed his eyes.

"Do you like him?" Eliot asked, he supposed it was irrational to be jealous of a dog but she hadn't even looked at him since she entered the yard.

"He's perfect." She said running her fingers through the dogs' hair as he let out a contented sigh. Eliot felt his eyebrows furrowing as Parker still refused to even look at him. She didn't often look people in the eye but he was different he always had been.

"What's wrong Parker?" he asked moving toward her slightly. He didn't want to crowd her but he also knew with the dog resting as he was she would be less likely to bolt; he could push the boundaries just a tad.

"Nothing." She replied unconvincingly tightening her fingers in the dog's hair just a bit.

"I don't believe you." He said moving close enough so he could grab her free hand. "Parker I know you're new to this but we can't fix things or solve our problems if one of us doesn't know what our problems are." He waited patiently not relinquishing his grip on her hand as she continued petting Harris clearly mulling over what he said.

"Are you a man whore?" she finally blurted out. Eliot choked out a laugh that the look on her face quickly stifled.

"Are you serious?" he asked. What the hell had Sophie and Tara been telling her about him? He thought they were on his side. He thought at least Sophie with her damn all-knowing looks and smug smiles would support his attempt to woo the thief.

"Tara said I should be careful before I started a relationship with you, then I didn't know what she meant and she said that you were a man whore." Parker blurted finally meeting his eyes hers filled with fear. Eliot brought a hand to his forehead barely resisting the urge to set fire to Tara's favorite pair of shoes.

"Parker I'm not a saint." He replied finally. "I've done things I'm not proud of both in and out of the bedroom but you need to know that this." He took her other hand much to Harris' annoyance from where it had been playing with his ears. "You and me, this is it for me and if it doesn't work then I'm done. Whatever Tara said about me and whatever you've seen over the years. How I feel about you is so different it's not even in the same ballpark."

"I don't know what that means." Parker said she didn't pull her hands back which he considered a good sign and kept holding on for dear life.

"It means that no matter what this relationship is my priority, nothing is going to come between us if I can help it, least of all my past." He tried to pull her closer to him, to hug her but she still resisted.

"What about Hardison?" she asked stubbornly.

"What the hell are those two trying to do to me!" Eliot growled falling back against the grass. Harris who thought that meant a game began barking and running up to him again with a cheerful puppy grin on his face.

"I don't get it." Parker said again clearly frustrated that she couldn't understand. "Especially not what Hardison has to do with this but Sophie kept asking me that like a million times."

"Hardison has a crush on you." Eliot grumbled not getting up from where he had laid back against the grass but instead throwing his arm over his eyes to protect them from the sun. he knew these were all conversations that they would need to have eventually but he certainly did not appreciate Sophie and Tara making them conversations they needed to have in one afternoon only a day after they decided to try a romantic relationship.

"Really?" Parker asked, he could tell from the way her voice had changed that she was lying beside him now. "Does that make me a man whore too?" she asked.

"You." Eliot turned to her with a smile, "You are most definitely not a man, whore or otherwise." He opened his eyes and found her lying on her stomach in the grass propped up on her elbows with her feet swinging back and forth behind her. He watched as Harris brought a tennis ball to her which she then rolled all the way across the yard with the excited dog chasing after it.

"Hardison never got me a puppy." She said finally. "I don't think I like him like I like you. It feels different, like when you get all Huggy Eliot it's just different." She told him clearly nervous about what she was saying.

"There has never been a woman in my life who made me feel the way that you do." he confessed after a moment of contemplation.

"Ok." She replied.

"Ok." He agreed. They lay there in silence for a few moments watching Harris attempt to wrestle the tennis ball into submission.

"What next?" she asked after a moment.

"You can help me finish building his doghouse." Eliot motioned to the shell of the boxed doghouse he had purchased earlier in the day. He got the frame up but still had a ways to go before it was completed. He had gone a bit overboard and bought a two story one that had a place for food and water bowls so he wouldn't always have to go inside when he was hungry or thirsty. He stood brushing grass of his jeans as she did the same beside him.

"Hold on." Parker said when he started toward the doghouse. She stepped forward into his personal space and before he could even react she kissed him gently. Unlike the one from earlier this was sweet and soft and lasted only a second before she pulled away. "Thank you."

"You're welcome Parker." He smiled as she bounced away he couldn't help a rather Hardison like fist bump into the air. He knew that they had kissed before and the one in the hallway had been more passionate but that was the first time she had initiated any kind of intimate physical contact. He knew Parker well enough to know that in the stairwell earlier she had teased him to the point where he had kissed her; she wanted it but had been afraid to take it. This was progress, a small step to be sure but a step nonetheless.

A/N: I know it's short but there is also alot of information jammed in there, the next chapter should be out tomorrow at the latest if not later tonight...


	13. Chapter 13

Parker shifted nervously from foot to foot as they stood outside the rather modest home of Archie Leach. They had been forced to park on the street as there were several other cars in the driveway and along the front of the House. Eliot couldn't hold back a growl of anger; Leach should have known that Parker would be uncomfortable meeting his entire damn family at the same time. "Parker, lovely to see you've made it." Archie exited the House and made his way toward the blonde who Eliot noticed stood up a little straighter though she was still clearly terrified. "Mr. Spencer my family is wondering who is glaring at our House from the lawn perhaps you could desist." Archie phrased it as a question but it was clearly a demand.

"Sorry we're late sir, we had to make sure the dog had food and water and a lot of toys so he wouldn't get bored, and then we had to get the right container for the pie that Eliot made, he said you can't go somewhere empty-handed it's against some kind of rule." Parker rambled gesturing to the pie in Eliot's hands.

"It's quite alright kiddo, I'm sure that Eliot's pie will be fantastic no matter the container." Archie put an arm around Parker who looked surprised by the contact.

"You can bet on that Mr. Leach." Eliot answered with a nod, a flick in the upstairs curtain caught his attention and he saw a woman with dark hair duck behind the window frame. "I think we're being watched."

"Yes we should get in, the family is very excited to meet you." Archie with a hand at the small of her back began guiding Parker toward the House but stopped short when she resisted.

"What did you tell them?" she asked her voice shaking slightly.

"I told them that you were an orphan, that I found you a place to live and taught you a trade, I told them that I loved you and that you were as much a part of my family as they are." Archie turned to face Parker dead on and waited in front of her until she met his eyes. "I made many mistakes with you, if I could go back and handle things differently, if I could have brought you home and shown you what a family was I would have. I want the chance to make it right."

Parker looked back her eyes locked on Eliot's he took a step forward and bend his head to whisper in her ear. "I gotta be honest with you babe this guy isn't my favorite person in the world, but he loves you that's pretty clear you wanna stay or you wanna go I got your back." Eliot couldn't help but enjoy, despite the seriousness of the moment the small shiver that ran through her body at the feel of his breath against her neck.

"Let's go." She said taking his hand into her own and looping her arm through Archie's. The older man turned and gave Eliot a nod of thanks. They would never be friends but they respected each other, and sometimes in their world that was better. When they entered the House the first person he saw was the woman who had ducked behind a curtain on the second floor descending the staircase. She was older than them in her mid-forties with long dark hair. Behind her were two more people, a man and a woman all with the same brown hair and deep brown eyes.

"Sarah, Julia, Carter meet Parker and Eliot." Archie nodded to each of the children in turn.

"Excuse me." A young girl walked out of the dining room where children and what he assumed were spouses were also watching the exchange. The girl also had long brown hair but unlike Archie's children she had a pair of deep green eyes that were studying Parker. "You took my lollypop." She accused folding her arms over her chest.

"I gave it back so it doesn't count." Parker replied tightening her grip on Eliot's hand.

"Does too." The girl protested.

"No if you give it back it makes it better right Eliot." Parker insisted looking to him for support with a slightly nervous look in her eye.

"Absolutely." He said kissing the side of her head, "Now I don't know about the rest of you but I'm a bit tired so if you'll show me where I can put this pie I would love to take a seat." Eliot looked up the stairs at the oldest girl identified as Sarah. Archie had told him once that since his wife died his eldest daughter had taken it upon herself to be his caretaker; he assumed that meant she would be playing hostess at this little gathering.

"You're completely right Eliot." She stepped down the stairs and took the pie from his hands. "I'll take this to the kitchen and Carter will take your coats." She nodded to her brother who descended the staircase and took the light jackets that both Parker and Eliot handed to him.

"I'll take you to the living room." Julia led them into the large room were two men both stood upon their entrance. "This is my husband Peter, and Sarah's husband Eric. You already met Emily Sarah's daughter, and these are my son's AJ and Cooper." The men shook hands with the both of them while the two boys who Eliot estimated to be around ten and seven simply continued playing barely sparing a glance at the newcomers.

"So Parker tell us about yourself why don't you." Sarah requested as she re-entered the rom taking a seat on the arm of her husband's chair.

"No thank you." Parker muttered squirming as all eyes were on her.

"Parker is a co-president of a security firm." Archie supplied subtly glaring at his children.

"What kind of work does that entail?" Peter asked with a hand on his wife's back clearly to calm her down.

"Parker is our security expert." Eliot explained taking Archie's hint. It was clear that the older man's family was not taking to Parker as well as he had hoped and both men knew that Parker would be made more awkward because of it. "She figures out how to break down the defenses of an alarm system physically instead of hacking it, we have another department for that."

"Is that even possible anymore?" Carter asked clearly interested, "I understand back in the days of bells and whistles it may have been easier but with the technology of today I find it hard to believe."

"Every system has a flaw." Parker said with a small smile at Archie, "Even the new ones are just a matter of nuts and bolts; you take out the right one and the dam breaks."

"What about you Eliot?" Carter once again carried the conversation, "You said we earlier so I assume you work for the same firm."

"We do, I'm in the recovery department. Sometimes as good as we are something does get taken, then it's my job to get it back." Eliot answered. His job was much easier to explain because it seemed more real world then Parker. "What about all of you?"

"Well, Sarah is a teacher at the local high school, Peter is a detective, Julia is a therapist, Peter is a mechanic, and I just got promoted to head of security at Lazidine Industries." He finished proudly. Eliot's surprise would only be noticed by one person, and when he reacted to the name of the company Parker looked over at him questioningly.

"Just got promoted huh, congratulations! Did the old guy retire?" Eliot inquired subtly nodding to Parker that she should go along with whatever he said. Eliot thought back to his talk with his neighbor David. Upon reflection he had noted the man's blue jacket in the hallway had the Lazidine industries logo on the front pocket. He knew from basic perusing of the newspaper that they were a real estate company. They were considered the new frontier in banking because each office held every step required to buy a House, you could go in and close on your House the next day if you had all the proper documentation. The company employed Real Estate agents, bankers, brokers, underwriters, loan officers, and everything else all they were missing was the moving company branch. He had yet to look into the problem but with an inside man right in front of him it would become quite a bit easier.

"No fired for something, personal reasons they said." Carter told them and leaned forward a bit. "I would love to hire your firm to do an audit, what did you say the name of it was again?"

"Leverage Security Consultants." Parker answered still clearly confused over what had Eliot so excited about Carter Leach's employment.

"We're on vacation now." Eliot found a pad and piece of paper on the coffee table beside the home telephone and scribbled down his name and phone number. "I'll see what we can do about the friends and family discount." He chuckled handing the paper to the older man who nodded gratefully.

"Yeah it's the problem in security, when nobody tells you what exactly the other guy got fired for you have to cover every base. I heard about this one company that told their second in command he was in charge just to test whether or not he would be able to handle the job. The real security chief was running the heist, they stole something like half the company files before they got spotted but they still managed to get away." Carter said folding the paper and placing it into his pocket.

"Well since were going to barbeque I think we should head out back." Archie announced standing and ushering the children out of the room. The younger ones followed but Eliot grabbed Parker's arm so she would hold back.

"What do you know about Lazidine?" he asked. He knew his partner well enough to know that if she had ever driven by the building she likely knew at least the basics of the security system and camera setup.

"They don't handle any actual cash, they aren't really a bank they just work with them. It's an identity theft hub though, with that many people working there, that's why they have such tight security. Were one person might not need your social security number or whatever it's still going to be on the file, they have a lot of identity safety security their system is supposed to be hack proof." She rattled off quickly speaking quietly so nobody would overhear the conversation.

"Our neighbor Dave works for them, that night he came over to apologize he told me that his company, which I'm pretty sure is Lazidine had some irregularities in the bookkeeping, he thinks someone is embezzling money from the company and with what I just heard I think he might be right." Eliot spoke just as quickly and just as quietly. Parker who was fully aware that they had a limited time to speak simply raised her eyebrow asking silently for more of an explanation.

"There are really only two reasons to fire a head of security; either they aren't doing their job right or they're sleeping with someone they shouldn't. Either one of those choices you would tell the next guy in line in the hopes that they would take it as a warning call." He said.

"So you think the head of security knew about it and they fired him for it?" Parker asked, "Why not kill him?"

"Maybe they did, we have to do some research and find out what's going on." He replied. He took her hand in his and led her out into the backyard.

"We were wondering where you guys got off too!" Julia exclaimed when they re-joined the group. "I hope you both eat meat." She held up a plate of perfectly grilled T-Bone steaks and some grilled chicken.

"I like hot dogs too." Parker said smiling slightly.

"Hot dogs are my favorite!" Emily exclaimed the earlier lollypop incident clearly forgotten in the face of this new and wonderful information.

"What's your favorite part?" Parker asked taking a heaping of food onto her plate and walking toward the kids picnic table without a backward glance debating the young girl on the validity of dogs in a bun versus dogs in a blanket.

"She gets along great with the kids." Sarah commented rather bitterly, upset that she felt more comfortable with the children than with her.

"She's had a tough go of things sweetheart you just have to give her time she'll warm up to you." Archie reassured his eldest daughter who simply watched Parker interact with the two young boys who had apparently decided their Aunt Parker was 'totally cool'.

"I've seen kids like that in my office all the time. They associate being hurt or being mistreated with adults the innate trust that we put in other adults when we first see them. The faith I have that Eliot wont haul off and punch me in the face for no reason, she doesn't have that with adults so she finds it in kids, it's easier for her." Julia said joining them at the picnic table that was clearly for adults.

"You got that from ten minutes huh?" Carter mocked his older sister earning him a playful punch in the ribs. "Hey hold on now!" Carter threw his hands up in the air scooting back, "What happened to the trust that you weren't going to beat me up!" he laughed along with the rest of their siblings but Eliot tuned them out. He had never thought about Parker that way, she couldn't trust adults because all her life the things that happened to her had been because of them. As a kid it must have been tough but as an adult herself it explained a lot of her social awkwardness.

Julia threw him out of his thoughts by leaning closer to him so she could be heard over Carter proclaiming loudly that his sister had clearly broken three of his ribs. "It's a good sign that she's in a relationship with you, it seems healthy if a bit co-dependent." She winked at him as she leaned back and joined in the argument about the state of her brother's health, quickly offering to punch him on his left side so his right wouldn't hurt so much anymore.

Dinner passed quickly with jokes and various attempts at getting to know each other while Parker taught the kids cartwheels on the lawn. It had taken only a little prodding from Julia to get both the older women out on the lawn as well. Eliot had watched Parker be quite tentative with them at first but quickly warm up and begin showing them a few flips. It didn't take long until all the adults were attempting to one up the others with more daring stunts as the kids cheered them on.

"I wish I had known." Eliot scooted over from where he had been seated in the middle of a bench where he had a good view of Parker and the rest of them. "I wish I had seen in her what you do, seen something more than the thief she could become." Archie joined him tapping his cane lightly on the ground a sign, Eliot knew from Sophie, of distraction.

"I'm almost glad you didn't." Eliot said, "She deserved a family but if she had this… if she had what you would have given her I don't know that we would have met. I wouldn't have known how empty my life was without her and who knows I might have settled for less then perfect."

"You're a good man." Archie said finally, "I think your good for her, better than that orange soda gummy frogs boy." He scowled disapprovingly, "Quite stupid to steal from behind a desk, I prefer to be in the action."

"I'm with ya." Eliot chuckled. "Don't get me wrong Hardison's got some skills, but there's nothing like sweating, heart pounding, adrenaline pumping action to shake things up." Eliot chuckled along with Leach, "But then again he does have asthmatic tendencies."

"I'm glad you found her Eliot." Archie told him after they finished having a laugh at Hardison's expense, one of Eliot's favorite pastimes.

"Me too Leach." He answered standing from his seat on the bench and joining Parker who was waving him over to try and get him to show the kids some of his karate skills. He could almost see it, a few years on this being their kids he was showing how to properly hold their hand when going for a punch. It was a familiar feeling, the desire to have children. Hell most people say it's human nature but looking at Parker for the first time in his life he thought it might be an honest possibility.

**A/N: Well this update less then 12 hours after the last one is my form of apoligizing to all of you for being gone for the entire Leverage hiatus. I'm sure that like me you use ff to get you through and I'm sorry I let you down. I hope this helps to make up for it, thank you to those of you who have stuck with me.**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: I'm beginning to feel that most of my chapters start like this lately but once again I'm sooooo sorry for the delay. Unfortunately life keeps getting in the way and then finding out Leverage was cancelled was the death stroke for my muse until I finally started reading some of the other E/P ff out there. Thanks to all the authors who inspired me to come back and give this story the ending it deserved. I finally finished my outline and though we have a ways to go I have a pretty good idea of where were going. Just so you all know I have not watched the season finally yet so in my mind Leverage has not been killed by TNT but it is on a reallyyyyyy long hiatus! No spoilers please!**

Their ride home was silent. He knew Parker well enough to know that while she had fun and enjoyed their day, the information he had given her was still on her mind. The silence was almost suffocating and he hated himself for ruining what was supposed to be a beautiful afternoon. They pulled into the driveway and Eliot put the car in park but before she could get out he grabbed her hand. "I'm sorry I told you."

"Why?" she asked still not looking at him, but he considered speaking a step in the right direction.

"Because this is your family, you should have been able to enjoy the entire day with them and I took that away. I shouldn't have." He answered honestly.

"I'm not sorry, family means you help right? Like when I was in the building and you came in to get me. So now I have to help them." She answered. "But I don't know how… I think we need to get Nate."

"We do need to get the team involved at some point but I want to get a little more information first." Eliot replied slipping out of the car.

"What kind of information?" Parker asked following him into the House. They took a moment to greet the hysterical puppy that was running back and forth between them thrilled they were home.

"I want to talk to David. He's go the inside track on what's going on and who our major players are going to be." Eliot flopped down on the couch and Harris promptly hopped up and placed his head on Eliot's leg asking to be petted. "If we can get that sooner rather than later we can get right into planning the actual con and not waste time with background information."

Parker sat down beside him on the sofa her longer nails enticing Harris to her lap to get his ears scratched. "Who is our client then? I know we can't let David get in trouble; but we can't let Carter either. Should we have told Archie what's going on?"

"I don't think so. I know you want to keep Carter safe but Archie's way of doing that might not be the right way. Nate is better about actually managing to help people, no offense." Eliot answered honestly. Though he and Archie had come to a mutual understanding in the process of the family get together, he was still not a fan of the older thief's methods. Archie was a plain thief, much like Parker before the team got to her. They didn't really care who they robbed, if desperate they would be just as likely to take a wallet from a rich or poor man. Thieves like Archie didn't have standards when they were backed into a corner and nothing backed a man into a corner more than his family being threatened.

"I guess." Harris jumped down off the couch and Eliot took the opportunity to wrap an arm around Parker's shoulders bringing her to rest against his chest. He felt her stiffen for a moment but he held his ground and eventually she relaxed against him. Though he was not a fan of public displays of affection when in private he was a very tactile man; he liked the idea that he had permission to touch Parker when he wanted and he planned to take advantage of it.

"Huggy Eliot again!" she tried to sound exasperated with him but he felt her snuggle in tighter to his body.

"I like hugging you." He answered back giving her a small squeeze. "So aside from the job stuff what did you think of them?"

"I liked the kids." She answered absently fiddling with a button on his shirt.

"I think they liked you too. I was thinking maybe before we go back to the team full time we would have our own barbeque. Invite all the kids from the neighborhood and Archie's family." He suggested the idea he had been mulling over in the car.

"How would we do that?" Parker asked, "I have too much stuff that they would know I was bad and then I would have to move!" she sat up panicked her head spinning as she catalogued all the priceless artifacts she had scattered throughout the House.

"Relax crazy, I didn't mean right now. We can clean the place before we have the party it was just a suggestion." He smiled as she glared at him, whatever he was about to say was cut off by a knocking at the door.

"I'll get it!" she called over her shoulder as she skipped to the door. He heard the sound of muffled voices he couldn't quite make out over the sound of Harris barking to greet the newcomers.

"Eliot." He stood to shake the hand of both David and Jimmy who seemed more excited by Harris then Eliot.

"He's really fuzzy Parker!" the boy exclaimed rubbing the dogs' ears which perked up proudly at the comment.

"I'm sorry to interrupt but as I told Parker we seem to have lost a Frisbee in your back yard." David told him smiling at his son's obvious enthusiasm.

"Well why don't we let Jimmy find it, I'm sure we can rustle up a beer for you if you'd like to hang out for a minute." He looked at Parker who nodded clearly understanding that he planned to take the opportunity to talk to David.

"Let's go get the Frisbee, and then I'll show you how high he can jump it's totally cool!" Parker lead Jimmy out of the House with Harris trailing along behind them tail wagging.

"Didn't know you guys had a dog." David commented as Eliot led him into the kitchen.

"He's a new addition. As you heard at your dinner party Parker didn't have the most normal childhood, white picket fence and dog is the least I can do." he chuckled. Though it had been intended as a joke he did take a moment to appreciate the truth of that statement. Parker had missed out on so much, he remembered the job they pulled at the high school reunion and how she had shared a dance with Hardison, her first if he wasn't mistaken. He added dancing to his ongoing mental list of things to experience with the blonde thief.

"I still can't apologize enough for that." David replied hanging his head slightly.

"Parker's ok so I'm ok." Eliot answered. "I did put a little thought into what you told me that night though." He watched David stiffen and crane his neck to see Jimmy outside playing with Parker and clearly unable to hear their conversation. "I've still got some books to take off shelves in the library, we're doing some re-modeling Jimmy Will be fine out there with Parker." He offered, understanding the man's need to keep the situation away from his young son.

"Thanks Eliot." He replied standing with a relieved smile on his face, "Keeping my hands busy while we talk about this will be nice. Eliot led the older man into the library and almost laughed at the look on his face. "That is a ridiculous amount of books."

"I know that's what I thought." Eliot agreed gesturing to the shelves he had yet to start tearing down.

"I can see why you want to re-build these though." David told him as a shelf came apart in his hands.

"The decorator was a friend of ours and didn't take Parkers request for shelves too seriously I guess." Eliot told him gesturing to the picture Parker had drawn. "That's what we're aiming for."

"That's a lot of work; I've got a background in carpentry if you're interested in some help on the weekends." David offered as they worked for a moment.

"I might take you up on that offer but for the moment I'm more interested in who you think is behind the embezzling." Eliot segued into the topic he wanted to discuss.

"It has to be the CEO Anthony Haskell although I'm sure most of the family is reaping the benefits." David answered. "The company hasn't gone public yet so their financial records aren't a matter of public record but all the executives pour over them with a fine toothed comb. If I noticed something was wrong you can bet they did too and since they didn't say anything." He trailed off leaving Eliot to fill in the blanks.

"You said the family, are they all related?" he asked no longer interested in being subtle about what he wanted to know.

David seemed to understand what was being asked of him and he began talking without asking for clarification. "The company was founded by Anthony Haskell and his brother Arthur. According to most stories Anthony was a banker who started the company working with his bank and buying up properties using family money. Arthur got involved because he was in the real estate game. He found properties they could increase the value of for next to nothing and sell at a huge profit. The company was nationwide in a matter of five years."

"And the rest of the family?" Eliot prompted.

"Well Arthur is the Chief Technical Officer, he handles most of the record keeping along with Anthony's oldest son Anthony Jr. they call him Ant he's the Chief Financial officer. He's also 28 and barely gradated from a community college with a business degree."

"I guess these guys take family pretty seriously." Eliot commented a bit surprised. Most people running schemes at this level liked to have people more qualified to handle the situation if it exploded.

"You're not kidding. Anthony has one other kid, his daughter who in true conservative southern republican fashion is a housewife with three maids. Her husband however is the Chief Information Officer. Nobody is quite sure what he does but I'm sure he's useless at it." Both men laughed at the joke though it was a little forced. Both of them understood that by discussing what they were discussing they had opened a door that could destroy David's life if Eliot misused it.

"Then the last guy is Carter Leach. I don't know too much about him. I guess Arthur ran out of family because the Chief Security Officer has never been a member of the inner circle." David shrugged.

"It's a fall guy." Eliot muttered.

"Fall guy?" David questioned. Eliot was surprised that he could hear that well but shrugged.

"I've seen it before, not in embezzling but in other theft rings. A tem will recruit someone they don't know and set up a paper trail leading the police to believe they committed the crime alone. If they don't get caught it's never used but if they do it's a get out of jail free card." Eliot explained knowing that that scenario made things much harder if they wanted to get Carter out unscathed. Though they liked to pretend it wasn't true they all knew that once the whispers started; especially in the security business; the people they had helped who were falsely accused still dealt with people who were biased against them from the start.

"Anything useful you can tell me about them personally?" Eliot asked as the pair of them moved on to the last bookshelf.

"Well I don't know too much about Anthony and Arthur but I work pretty closely with Ant. He's not married and he uses his money to find various bedfellows. He seems to like older women from what I've seen storming out of his office every few weeks. It's a whirlwind with him, picks them up, screws them for a week, and then dumps them flat on their fake boobs." David's distaste for the younger man was obvious as he scowled at the wall.

"He sounds like an asshole." Eliot told him honestly.

"You aren't kidding!" David replied lifting the last few books off the shelves.

"We're tired!" Parker said from the doorway. Eliot couldn't help but laugh at the startled yelp Dave let out at the voice behind him.

"You're like a little blonde ninja." He told her clearly amused at his own fright.

"Daddy you were super scared." Jimmy told his father Frisbee in hand. "I think it was funny."

"Well Eliot it was nice talking to you." David held out a hand for both Parker and Eliot to shake. "Parker thanks for entertaining the boy." They walked together to the front door and after one last hug for both Parker and Eliot from Jimmy they closed the door behind their guests.

"It's not good is it?" Parker asked sliding down the wall in the entry way. Eliot sat down beside her and took her hand in his.

"It looks like they had a loaded gun pointed at Terrance Grey the guy Carter is replacing." He told her absently tracing patterns on her palm.

"Which means they most likely have one pointing at Carter by now." She sighed and slammed her head back against the wall.

"All that means is that we're going to have to find that paper trail and destroy it before we take them down. We can still protect Carter and Archie." He pulled her to him and pressed a light kiss to her forehead. He knew she would need time to think it through; she wasn't used to feeling the need to protect people like Carter who couldn't fend for themselves in her world.

"Can I kiss you?" she asked so quietly that he almost didn't hear her.

"What?" he asked though his blood thrummed through his veins at the idea of holding her again he had to make absolutely sure he heard her correctly.

She pulled away from him and stood up pacing into the living room with her arms wrapped around her biceps in a defensive position. "There's so much up there and I need to not be in there and it's hard and when you… when you get all Huggy Eliot and Kissy Eliot sometimes it's not too much and it's just quiet." She rambled only as long as it took him to cross the room. He placed his hands on hers and pulled her arms apart wrapping them around his torso. He took her chin in his hand and tilted her head up until she met his eyes.

"I don't care if it's because you're bored, you're feeling frisky, or you need to tone down the voices in your head you _never_ have to ask my permission to kiss me." He said smiling slightly. A smile that she swallowed when she lifted her lips to his in a soft kiss. She pulled away blushing slightly a tiny smile on her face. He leaned forward intentionally brushing his lips against her earlobe as he said, "That the best you got sweetheart?" He delighted in her little shiver as he dropped his head to press a gentle kiss on her collarbone. He moved up slowly leaving open-mouthed kisses on her neck until he reached her lips.


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: So my goal is to end every chapter (especially ones like these that are more plot heavy than E/P heavy) with a Eliot Parker moment. I think that format is working so far… Anyway here's the next installment and I hope you enjoy!

"From what I've been able to dig up since Nate called me last night it looks like most of the information your neighbor gave you is right on the money." Hardison told them as they walked into Nate's apartment. It had taken every ounce of willpower he possessed but he had managed to pull away from Parker after about an hour of making out on the couch and call Nate.

"Like I said on the phone last night." The man himself came around the corner followed by a clearly irritated Sophie both with a glass of scotch in hand. "I've had this company in my sights for a while, Hardison had already done a portion of the background on them and you were right to be cautious." Nate put his glass down on the kitchen island upon noting Eliot's glare in his direction.

"I agree Eliot your instincts about Carter were spot on there's no other reason to have someone so far on the outside of the family dynamic other than a fall guy. There is no trust built and from what Hardison has been able to glean from their schedules not much opportunity to build it." Sophie added taking a seat on the couch next to where Parker was perched on the arm of the couch.

"Where's Tara?" Parker asked after a cursory glance around the apartment revealed no sign of the con-woman.

"She left already; we found out last time that cons together aren't really the best recipe for keeping a friendship." Sophie winked at Parker clearly trying to get the thief in on the joke. Parker simply stared at Sophie her face blank clearly waiting for someone to explain.

"Anyway." Nate coughed from the back of the room. "It looks like everyone is aware of what's going on and receiving the profits but Anthony is the one actually doing the dirty work."

"Exactly." Hardison put up a picture of an older man on the screens in front of them. "Like I said most of the information was accurate, the brothers did start the company together and it's not public. But here's the thing." Hardison flipped through a few screens until he came to a magazine cover that showed the four men they were after with the title Real Estate Giants underneath. "The younger brother Arthur, it's subtle but you can see the jealousy in most of the interviews he gets. Anthony likes to play it up like he did the whole thing himself and it kills Arthur every time he has to admit that it was his brother's idea."

"So there are cracks in the wall." Sophie leaned forward interested. "I understand the son is promiscuous."

"For sure. It's lucky your source told us that because it would have taken me a while to figure out. Most of his ladies like a more high class outing than the usual clubs and parties that come along with this kind of guy." Hardison put up security camera photos of about a dozen different women with the same man. "Ant here is damn lucky his daddy is rich because this boy has an ugly face."

"So that's our in." Nate informed the group nodding at the photos. "Sophie will become his latest date, get in close enough to exploit the cracks."

"Who is she gonna be this time?" Parker asked excitedly, "Can she be a cowboy, or a space cowboy like that movie we watched last night. Oh what about a space cowboy who also is afraid of horses because they're evil! A space cowboy who rides a motorcycle!"

"Easy Parker." Nate held a hand up silencing Parker almost immediately though she proceeded to pout at him. "Sophie is going to be me."

"Excuse me?" Sophie asked indignantly turning to face the grinning mastermind behind them.

"That might be better than the space cowboy motorcycle idea." Parker stage whispered to Eliot resting her hand on his knee to get closer to him. The feeling made him smile lightly, ever since last night when he made it clear that she was always aloud to touch him she had gone out of her way to do so. He only hoped she kept it PG while they were at Nate's.

"Hardison bring up the picture of the lobby we saw earlier." Nate ignored Sophie who sputtered indignantly. Hardison pulled up a picture of a high ceilinged room with several portraits. "Right there." Nate moved forward and tapped one of the pictures on the wall. "Parker is going to steal that right there."

"How does that turn me into you?" Sophie huffed her arms crossed across her chest.

"Because these portraits are insured by IYS and who knows IYS policy better than Nate Ford." He answered.

"And the Chief Financial Officer will have to deal with the insurance investigator." Hardison smiled a devious little smile.

"And that Chief Financial Officer just happens to be just my type." Sophie added catching on to Nate's plan.

"What about Carter? We can't risk letting him take the fall for this." Eliot asked with a nod to Parker.

"That's the tricky part." Hardison hit a few buttons on the keypad and brought up a logo for a security company. "After the embezzlement was discovered by your friend and Carter took over they upgraded the security system. It's all internal now there isn't any internet access inside the building. They couldn't risk anyone outside finding what was going on."

"The problem is that you aren't going to have any idea what you're getting into if we have you break into the servers directly." Nate directed this to Parker. "Sophie as part of her investigation will be able to get access to some of the security plans, we think the server room is off of Anthony's office it's the most secure office in the building."

"Ok" Parker said nodding, "I'm going to go check out the building security. Hopefully I can do it tonight." She grabbed her jacket off the back of her chair and much to everyone's shock she simply got up and left.

"What was that about, is she ok?" Hardison asked after a moment of stunned silence. Eliot knew something was bothering Parker but he wasn't quite sure what it was. He stood ignoring Hardison's question and walked out the door nearly running into the thief who was standing just outside it.

"What the hell Parker!" he exclaimed surprised to find her. Without a word she whirled on her heel and walked down the stairs with him following close behind. She led him down a few streets and into an alley three blocks from the apartment.

"Do you think Sophie and Hardison are mad at us?" she asked out of the blue turning to face him startling him again with her abrupt movement.

"What are you talking about?" he asked. Despite his love for her she was still the most infuriating woman on the planet sometimes.

"We ruined their vacation." She said for some reason looking just as exasperated with him as he was with her. "I was kind of upset that we had to come in to the office. I liked it just being you and me and Harris but they didn't seem mad. Were they mad and I missed it, or were they not mad?"

With that question Eliot understood what was going on. He had gotten so used to Parker understanding him and being able to express her feeling to him in the week they had spent together that he had forgotten that she wasn't normally that good at it. She was clearly confused, perhaps she had expected yelling or a few angry comments by Sophie or Hardison who had just taken it in stride that they were getting called in. "Parker I know we had a month off but I don't think any of us really thought we would go the whole month." He answered honestly. "I thought we might get a few days before Nate called us back, he doesn't really do vacation."

"Did you miss it?" Parker asked, "This last week, I think we'll have another job when this is done right?"

"To be honest yes, I did miss it here and there. Mostly when I thought of how much fun something would be." He reached out and took her hand in his, "But I would have stayed in that House just you me and that yappy dog forever if that was what I thought you wanted." He pressed a gentle kiss to her knuckles and pulled her out of the alley. He knew her well enough that she would need to process what he said just like anything else he told her.

"Eliot I think I would have been ok in the house forever." She told him, "If we could go outside sometimes though. I think it would be boring being inside all the time, and if Jimmy could come over and play sometimes." Eliot could not have wiped the smile off his face for a million dollars.

"Well we've got somewhere else to play now." He led her to the car. "Recon first?" he asked, she nodded and they set off through the crowded streets to their destination. Parker pulled her tablet from the glove box of the car and began looking through what he assumed to be building blueprints. Parker had an ingenious mind, quite a bit like Nate's if he were being honest. Though she wasn't as good at seeing the people-related aspects of a con he knew that instead of lines on a paper she was walking through the halls of the building in her mind.

He left her to it as he tried to navigate the busy streets it was only twenty minutes later that he pulled up in front of the building parking the car in a parking structure a few blocks away. Parker exited the car without a word her nose still buried in her research, he couldn't see exactly what it was but it looked like a schematic for a security camera that she had pulled up. After the mess with the Parker 2000 (she had liked it until she overheard a comment from Hardison that it might just be better than the original, then she smashed it with a baseball bat) Hardison had given her a tablet with all the information on every security system from the key lock to the electronic one on it. Though she knew much of the information she had been glad to have the opportunity to double check her knowledge, especially with so much new stuff coming out almost daily.

"You familiar with the system?" he asked as they settled in on a park bench. He wrapped an arm around her and leaned in so it looked like they were reading the tablet together.

"I've cracked it once before but it's a two man job with the security. Looks like you're coming with me Sparky." She said smiling up at him.

"Need me to protect you?" he joked back nudging her with his hip so she would know he was joking.

She turned serious looking up at him and he could see she was struggling with something. "I don't need you too." She said finally looking down at her hands which were clutched in her lap. "But I kind of want you too."

For the second time that day Eliot Spencer was completely floored. He knew better than anyone what it took for her to say that to him. For her to offer up a part of herself like that, all he could do was stare at her in wonder as he realized that this beautiful, incredible, talented, smart woman. That someone like Parker was willing to let down her walls and to attempt to trust him with her heart. "I will always be there for you." He hugged her to him tightly and instead of making a joke or squirming away he felt her small hands grip the back of his shirt pulling him even closer. He never would have thought they would have a moment like this one sitting on a park bench while casing a mark. It was strange, it was weird, and it had probably never been done before outside of a heist movie but upon reflection; it was them and that made it perfect.


	16. Chapter 16

Eliot had been tortured. He made no secret of that fact with anyone on the team. But never before had he been involved in this kind of self-torture. He currently had the most flexible woman he had ever met in his bed attached to him completely; and on top of her attractiveness he was in love with her. It had been unintentional, he wanted to change his shirt into something more work-friendly and Parker had followed him without his knowledge. As soon as he was shirtless she had jumped onto him wrapping her arms and legs around his body and fused her mouth to his. As they kissed her hands roamed his back tracing each muscle with a precision and dexterity that if he were more focused he would almost admire. Her body strained against his in an instinctual need to get closer and he knew if he didn't pull away then it would be the end of what he was trying to accomplish with her.

He pulled his mouth from hers and buried his forehead against her neck with a growl of frustration. "What?" Parker asked the sound of her breathless voice almost snapping his tentative control over himself.

"Go out with me." He hissed trying desperately to force his mind to focus. It was a testament to how she made him feel that he had lost enough control to allow himself that close to her. He felt her tense under him as she processed his question and immediately lifted his head. Regret for that decision came almost instantly as he took her in, lips swollen and red, hair spread out over the bed, and her flushed face spoke to her enjoyment of their previous activity. Her eyes however told him a different story, the panic he felt through her body was reflected in the blue irises.

He immediately shifted himself off her so he was lying next to her, though it fought against every protective instinct in his body he did not reach for her. There was no end to his surprise when she curled up against him, his heart nearly exploded with love for the woman who had fit herself into his arms perfectly. "What's wrong?"

"Go out like on a date?" she asked keeping her face turned away as she asked. Had she not been snuggled into his arms he would have been terrified by her lack of eye contact. As it was he knew she was uncomfortable about the question but not uncomfortable or afraid of him.

"Yeah Parker, that's part of the wooing process." He told her squeezing her a bit tighter to him as her head rested on his shoulder.

"I've never been on a real date before. Sophie made me go out on dates with marks but that's different right?" she replied.

"Damn straight it's different!" he exclaimed rolling his eyes. A date with him better be different than one with some guy Sophie had set her on. "A date with me will mean something Parker. It's all part of the wooing process."

She shifted herself so she was lying with her upper body spread across his chest and she could make eye contact with him. "Why cant we just have sex?" she asked, "Seems like it would be way more fun than a date."

Eliot couldn't help the growl that was released from deep in the chest she was lying on. She let out a soft groan enjoying the vibration that almost sent him over the edge. He caught his hands reaching for her and forcibly stilled his body. "Eliot?" she asked after a moment of his complete lack of movement. "Did I break you?" she asked her hands roaming his body looking for whatever she had done to cause his odd reaction.

"Stop!" he hissed grabbing her wrists and pulling her away from his body. She moved to the side clearly delighted by his reaction to her. He was up and away from the bed in a second; the woman couldn't be trusted lying down. "I'm going to give you an honest to God relationship if it kills me Parker!" he announced a bit louder than he intended. "If you keep pushing it by the way, it just might!"

The sound of the doorbell saved him though he noted her face fall out of the corner of his eye. He knew Parker well enough that a statement like that would only spur her on. He liked to believe it had slipped out intentionally but part of him almost hoped she would break down his defenses. If their various kisses and touches had been anything to go by, they would be explosive. He didn't bother checking just opened the door shocked to see Nate standing before him. "That explains a lot." The mastermind nodded to Eliot's shirtless state.

"Come in." he stepped aside and smiled gratefully at Parker who was descending the stairs with a shirt of his in her hand.

"Only I get to see your manly bits." She informed him seriously, he couldn't help the chuckle as he pulled on his shirt. The thief was incredibly territorial with things she considered hers and it was clear that she considered him her property.

"This is a lovely home Parker." Nate told her, she beamed at him from the stairs not the least bit curious as to why he had darkened their doorstep.

"What are you doing here Nate?" Eliot had never been that forgiving. They had not talked anything out and he still had a bone to pick with their fearless leader.

"Can we sit somewhere?" Nate asked his eyes straying to the couches. Parker immediately hopped over plopping down on the love seat eyeing Eliot with an evil smirk. He glared and took a seat in the arm chair next to her, no need to give her any ammunition.

Nate took the chair across from them and looked around the room taking in the tasteful décor, his eyes taking in the entire room. "Whenever you're ready." Eliot leaned back unwilling to give the other man a moment of time to rest himself.

"I've spoken to Sophie." Nate told them finally meeting his eyes, the remorse Eliot saw there softened a bit of his resolve to despise the older man. "She made me see that asking you two… Sophie talks, I think, and Hardison sits behind a computer. You both do everything physically asking you to jump from one job to another was wrong because you both have taken beatings and…" Nate stopped his head dropping into his hands. "I think sometimes my desire to right every wrong makes me blind to the ones I cause." He looked up at Eliot and then to Parker who was still and oddly silent. "I know I've lost your trust, what little of it I had but I want to ask that you give me the chance to earn it back."

Parker leaned forward and touched her hand to his forearm. Nate looked stunned at the uncharacteristic gesture but he sat and waited for her. "It's ok." She said after a moment, she let go of him and sat in her chair again.

Nate turned to him sure that the condemnation he would receive from the hitter would make up for Parker's easy acceptance. "You heard her." Eliot nodded to Parker, "I'm good if she's good."

"See it's all good!" Parker stood and grabbed Nate's arm again. "Come on you can meet Harris, he's our dog he's outside, and then you can see the rest of the house." She turned to him a pout in her eyes, "Nate can stay for dinner right?"

"Depends Parker." He leaned closer, "You gonna go on a date with me?" She rolled her eyes and nodded leaning up to give him a gentle kiss as she towed Nate out the door Harris immediately jumping up to get the attention of the mastermind.

Eliot headed to the kitchen knowing full well that they had purchased a pot roast that would be just big enough for the three of them. He supposed he should feel bad about blackmailing Parker into going on a date with him but he knew full well that if Nate had not come in she would have put all her effort into seducing him. As clumsy as she could be in that department she had somehow gained control over his libido, she could breathe at him and he was aroused, it would not take much for her to get her way and God help him if she figured that out.

As he prepared their dinner he watched her and Nate interact. She was explaining how they were going to turn her above ground pool into an in ground one and showing him the vegetable garden. Nate and Parker had always had a closer relationship then the rest of them. He thought it was hard for the mastermind to think of him and Hardison as sons having lost one of his own. It would have been a constant reminder of the man his own child would never grow to be. Parker however was not only a bit child like herself but was eager to learn from Nate and quick to stand by him. Her relationship with the older man was one they both needed, Nate got his child to teach and mold, and Parker got the loving and protective father she never had.

* * *

><p>He would never get tired of watching Parker move. Her grace and agility was stunning to him, he could admit to himself that he was not the most graceful man in the world. She went around the bad guys, he went through them. He followed her along the side of the building; her hand on his chest stopped him just outside of the view of the security cameras. She paused for a moment then continued on her way coming up to the secure door. She pried open the keypad with a screwdriver and connected two wires then with a flick of her wrist the door opened and she pulled him inside.<p>

She was amazing with her use of everyday tools. From the beginning that had been something that impressed him she didn't automatically need the fancy tricks that Hardison employed. She was more like him, she could handle her responsibilities bare bones if necessary. She slunk along the wall staying to the shadows, her brilliant blonde hair hidden under a skull cap of his that she had taken from his closet when he was unpacking. She grabbed him again, this time to point out a security guard; she looked at him and mimed choking. He nodded and stepped up to the guard his steps silent. He grabbed the man around the neck his large bicep flexing to cut off the man's airway, he pulled him back into the shadows as he fell unconscious. Parker lifted the side of his suit jacket and handed Eliot the handcuffs while she took the security pass. He took care of trussing up the man murmuring an apology to the still man.

He followed Parker through the door she held open for him that led up to the security office. Eliot quickly dispatched the first of the two guards as he did the man from earlier while Parker tased the other. "I'm in the security room Hardison, patching you in." she muttered into her comm as she got busy on the computer inserting her flash drive to allow Hardison a Wi-Fi port to short the cameras.

"You good girl, go on do ya thing!" the hacker responded after a moment. Hardison had developed a program that would link his computer to the other, it would allow him limited access to the security system that already beamed its information to other computers in the building. Again the pair of them were on the move. They were able to get around with more freedom now as they had Hardison to keep them posted on guards. The portrait they had been sent to steal hung at the halfway point up the wall under a balcony. Parker was prepared for that and hooked her gear to the balcony. She rappelled down and nodded up to Eliot. Her location was about six feet away from the wall itself and she was unable to reach the painting from where she was. Eliot leaned over the side as far as he could and began swinging the rope back and forth. He cursed lightly as he pushed and pulled on the rope, though Parker didn't weigh much his position made the process difficult.

She finally got enough momentum to swing up to the wall where she jabbed a long metal stake she had into it. She held on and leaned across the painting jamming another stake into the wall. She stretched a rope between them and clipped herself to it so she was held close enough to work. Nate wanted the job to be confusing, making it difficult for the police to accidentally accuse a local thief that was why they chose the painting in the most difficult location. Parker made quick work of it from there, the frame was bolted to the wall but as she had explained to him earlier the canvas was attached to the back of the frame. She loosened the bolts enough to get behind the portrait and removed the attachments. She rolled the canvas as she went and finally got it tight enough to fit into the carrying case she had on her back. She looked up at Eliot her face aglow as she winked at him, she was always at her happiest when she was suspended in the air.

She gripped the frame and loosened her stakes. She filled the holes in with putty and tightened the frame. The canvas being gone made it easier for her to grip. "Go." She whispered letting go in the same instant. Eliot immediately began hauling her back up the muscles in his arms barely straining at her weight. "We gotta fatten you up." He muttered smirking at Sophie's disapproving huff.

"That is not how you talk to a lady Eliot." The woman informed him. They had all learned the hard way that unless it was completely necessary they didn't need to talk during a Parker heist. She worked alone partly because of preference but mostly because her job required the most concentration out of all of them. Even Eliot could move on muscle memory, and Hardison was an expert at multi-tasking, as was Sophie; though he personally thought her various characters were easier for her to maintain than she let on. Parker made quick work of dismantling her rope and harness fitting it all back into Eliot's backpack with ease. In a move that surprised him she grabbed his face and kissed him hard. He couldn't help his natural reaction to haul her up against him and kiss her back fiercely.

"Any time you guys want to get out of there would be fine." Nate's voice in their heads pulled the pair of them back into reality and he let her go with one last gentle kiss on her lips. Their exit was the same as their entrance with a quick stop by the security office to remove the thumb drive then out the same way they came.

"Eliot?" Parker asked as they made their way to her car that was parked a few blocks away outside a night club.

"Yes darlin?" he asked pulling her to him with a hand wrapped around her waist. Even with his backpack and the tube attached to her back they looked like an average couple. Eliot rolled his eyes and pulled the hat from her head letting her blonde locks tumble around her face, now they looked like an average couple.

"How many dates do we have to go on before we can have sex?" Eliot rolled his eyes at the question then laughed as he could hear Hardison coughing up orange soda and Sophie's strangled yelp. He reached up to her ear and pulled out the comm. He took his own out and stuck them both into his pocket.

"Not many Parker believe me." He answered kissing the side of her forehead as they approached the car ready to head home.


End file.
